Black Pine Front Selection

Hey Folks,

Just acquired a pretty fun JBP and wanted to show it off under the guise of asking for help selecting a front. Let me know what you think.

3 Likes

When I saw the first pic, I was sure that was the front. But each pic looks amazing. I think I’d choose #1 or #4.

#4 has great nebari, but it kinda looks like it tilts back pretty far.

I’d go for 2
1 and 4 lean back pretty far indeed.

I’m feelin’ 4 with a slight angle change that kicks it forward a bit.


The nebari combined with the negative space under the left branch is really calling to me.

3 Likes

Looks really good! I like your last picture with it tilted toward the viewer. Nice tree!

1 Like

Fantastic tree. I would go with the third photo:

and tilt the pot up from the right side:

get a defining branch running down from the top, more or less as in the drawing below.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to practice design. I am starting to use the iPad Pro with the Apple pen to play with design ideas. Pretty cool. The software I am using is called Procreate, it is excellent. Even allowing to produce a time lapse of the drawing… mine below is messy as I didn’t draw the layers in the right order and I also corrected them later (layers for the trunk, old 2ry branches, new 2ry branches, old pot, new pot, old foliage, new foliage, etc)…

https://youtu.be/HK6gL-5sE40

4 Likes

Taking shape

3 Likes

You figured it out yourself and I like the decision a lot :+1:t4:

1 Like

Thanks for the feedback y’all!
Shall we dig into some of the issues with this tree?


Here is an image of the first whorl. There are essentially 6 branches originating from one location. Currently this does not seem to be at immediate risk of causing inverse taper.

The second whorl may be a bit more problematic.
There are 4 branches at this location, along with 1 large and 2 small jins. Here I am seeing some inverse taper from some angles, but not from the selected front. Don’t know what I am going to do here. Not planning on taking anything major off right now, but maybe I should.


This last pic is an old stump cut. Any ideas on how to make this a little more natural looking? It’s on the back so it’s pretty far out of view.

Thanks for your help all!

Here’s another somewhat compelling view just cause.

I think this your front. I would roll it a little more, ie lift the back right corner up another 2 inches. You then have the defining branch going to the left over the amazing nebari an apex to pull from the back over the top towards you and a branch to push slightly to the right. A really great tree to play with. Looking at the pictures below that rafi has done the third one is pritty close to where I would be going. Nice ond rafi.

Robin

Opps this has inserted below the wrong picture… the front I was looking at is the 5 pic, the first one with the tree in a black crate with the trunck going to the right.

I would try to reduce the first 6 whorl if possible to 4, and think of developing the branches and then reduce again once you are getting some more branch development, or you can comit to the two you want to keep. Hard to make a call from these pics. The old stump could be hollowed out a bit to help the calus to grow over it… trying to remember the relavant stream with this in…

1 Like

Thanks Rafi. We are definitely thinking alike on this one. I’ll post some pics when it’s all wired out. I ran out of 6, 8, &10 gauge wire on the same day and need to anneal some more.

The main decision you need to make is…whichto do first. to repot or fully style. If you resylye first then when you repot you can get it at the right angle, but if you are going to remove a lot of the foliage then it might be better to repot first and leave the magority of the foliage on and fully restyle in the autumn or the folliwing year. If you have a good idea of the front you could place the main branches so you get the angle pritty close to where you want it…Me I would do the repot, and use the foliage to drive the tree forward. Trim off some if the 5,and 4 branch locations down to 3, and once it has recovered go for it in the autumn if it looks healthy ng off the rest. Good luck, it has potential to be a very nice bonsai with such a good nebari.

Word. This tree definitely needs a repot.

Project Photo Update!
Repotted this spring. Pushing out nicely.

1 Like

_MG_1849 (1)

Here’s another update on this tree. Jinned the large far left branch and compressed on the left. Raised up the lowest branch and elongated to the right. Looking forward to decandling season.
Let me know what you think of the changes and if you think a slight counter clockwise rotation presents a slightly better front.

_MG_1850

The base gets a little wider and the negative space under that floating root decreases. You get a little more of the jin.

Cheers,
Ryan