Before & After Tropical Bonsai by Robert Steven 2/21/19

ROBETBA

Before and after by our friend Robert Steven, one of the World Bonsai Community's foremost teachers and innovators. The before photo was submitted to Robert by David Royinsyah. The after is one of a large number of digital simulations that Robert employs as a teaching tool. The tree is a Tamarindus indica, a type of tropical legume. The photos are from the Black Scissors Community.

We’re in the throes of moving our website to a more up to date platform. So to keep things simple, we’ve borrowed this post from our archives (Nov, 2017), with a few changes today

It has been a while since we posted one of Robert Steven’s simulated before and after photos. In addition to being one of the foremost bonsai artists in the world, Robert is a bonsai teacher, so his before and afters are always information rich, with comments about style, technique, horticultural considerations and even bonsai history
Continued below…

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RBEFORE

Before. The after simulation is below

Continued from above…
However, in this case, I went ahead and did my own commentary before I noticed that Robert had a separate page with his commentary (on Black Scissors Community). So having gone to all the trouble, I’ve decided to keep mine (below). Meanwhile, here’s your link to the real story by the artist himself.
Continued below…

RAFTER

After. Robert's simulation

Continued from above…
Note: these are my comments, not Robert’s (here’s a link to Robert’s comments)
First thing was to get rid of the ugly pot and replace it with something more natural whose lines complement the lines of the tree – what an improvement!
The rest of the changes are fairly subtle. What I see is a tree with a gentle prevailing breeze from left to right. With this breeze you get shorter branches on the left and extended branches on the right, with the foliage on the right extending beyond the tips of the branches. You might also notice some inner branches curving to the right.

Another change is the apex, with its nod to the right which further emphasizes the prevailing breeze. Beyond that, I’m sure there are other  changes, but you’ll have to check with Robert about those.

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