Thankyou Leatherback.
firstly i have no idea how the rest of you reply to a specific sentence on another post.
Like this?
Instead of reply, hit "quote". You can then edit the quoted text, as long as you leave the parts in the squared brackets.
If you look at a number of bonsai in the style, look very closely at the leaves and the transition of the thick trunk into the branchlets. This should give you an indication of the size of the tree. I have found that I normally underestimate the size of bonsai from pictures.It would not surpise me if someone told me the tree you just showed as an example is perhaps half a metre tall.
The size is important because of the amount of detail you can add. Say that each level of branching has 1/3 of the thickned of the previous level (Main branches are ideally max 1/3 of the trunk size): A trunk of 1/2 cm thick only allows for 2 levels of branching, after which you run out of branch (first branch = 1/3 of trunk = 1 2/3 mm. Second branch 1/3 of first branch = 0.5mm...
Also, each leaf needs space. So a small canopy can only hold a limited number of leaves, reducing the complexity of the canopy, and th illusion of a miniature tree.