I have never felt so stupid as while watching the Deciduous Apex Creation stream. Yeah, it’s labeled Advanced for a reason, but, seriously folks, while each word was in English and one that I understood, when they were all put together I became hopelessly lost. I could not comprehend his goals, or “see” what he declared to have achieved. Yes, I’ve wanted Featured Content on Design and Apex, which were hard to understand, but more pedagogical than this. It felt to me that Ryan was talking to just a few folks and left the rest of us waaaayyy behind.
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I don’t think Ryan was at his best when recording. I think he had an allergic reaction to the tree. He was not in normal condition and you can feel it while watching the video.
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Brian, sometimes it can take a couple of run throughs before the penny drops. Stop and start the video when it gets confusing and I guarantee you will get it in the end.
I think Shany is right and Ryan was a little bothered by the allergic reaction he was suffering. But all in all it was a good stream with plenty to learn…
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In addition, I think that the creation of the apex in hardwoods is a much more nuanced concept than in conifers. It’s less black and white.
In the shohin ministream the following day, Ryan commented that the apex stream was not his best due to the allergies. Every time he got close to the tree the allergies hit and they cleared whenever he stepped away to take in the big picture with the camera.
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I can see it being a bit tough to follow since Ryan kind of talked about the tree in its entirety. Kind of necessary though as the apex is just a continuation of the branch design dictated by the defining branch. I think what he was really trying to illustrate is that in deciduous the apex is built from secondary branches that emanate up from the primary branch/trunk.
I tend to have issues with this because in my deciduous I tend not to have a single primary trunk/branch. Everything kinda ends up being broom style and (for me) it leads to issues with trying to build height in the design. I asked that question in the stream. Ryan’s answer was basically that I have to allow the structure to build on top of itself. What was once a secondary will become essentially another primary. My realization was that I need to allow those secondaries to build while also maintaining the silhouette on the existing primary.
I’ve noticed a trend though; this year Ryan is really forcing us to take our skills to the next level. He’s providing us guideposts. It’s up to us to learn how to navigate with them. It’s been a struggle at times, but when the light bulb turns on it’s been quite freeing.
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