A few comparisons

I've been sitting on this spruce since I collected it, getting more and more unsure that it was actually worth having. It had a lot of elements that I liked, but I wasn't sure how to bring them together. This is the start I made:

That front branch will need to be adjusted more, and the lower trunk crossing branch too. I had them the way I wanted them before pulling the tip down with a wire, and they are no longer in alignment. I thought of just chopping the front branch off, but I can always do that later

I want to keep it so I can try developing a line that resembles a favorite stance of my old teacher Steve Smith (R):

This is not a great picture for showing the side profile, but it's the best I could find. I want the tree to evoke a forward piercing into an oncoming force. The back branches that form a bow do this well, but they are not obvious from the picture. The could be made more obvious by trimming, and I will do some trimming eventually, but for now I'll let it keep all its parts.

EDIT: I was not as patient as I tried to seem, I cut of the branch. The more I looked I realized that the forward intent, but backwards sweep seemed like a bird or a dragon to me.

I wish I had a picture of this hemlock as I originally had it. It was impossible to see into it because of the branches, it was a lot taller, and it had a whole extra dead trunk. Alas, I will start the progression from here.

After much string and wire I got it into this rough shape. In the future the stubs of the trunks will be trimmed down and hidden with foliage, but for now I am using them as anchor points for my strings.

I am sure experienced bonsai people would find my string techniques quite awful, but they seem to be doing the job for me, and string is cheaper than wire.


He is my dad's Fukien Tea, it has become much healthier under my care, but he doesn't want me to cut off the long branch, or any branches for that matter.

  

Thankfully the foliage is getting dense enough to hid the ugliness of the branches. In time maybe I can make the long branch acceptable.

Here's a Chinese elm. The second picture may look unruly, because of new growth, but I consider it an improvement. I've been trying to order the branches into a more natural shape, and expand the crown the crown laterally. I also decreased the crown of the tree quite a bit before this picture was taken.

Here it is now, after changing the soil and with many adjustments made to flatten the large branches.