General gathering of thoughts

Hi. My first time posting.
Just a general gathering of thoughts i collected in my short time (7 years) of doing bonsai:

Firstly,
I got fascinated by this hobby because of one little tree (Shohin at that) i saw.
It reminded me of a big tree and all the joys trees (young or old) gave me as a child and their beauty as i look at them now as an adult.

Secondly,
The ilustrations and general rules in bonsai how to books helped me immensely.
I would not have had any idea where to begin this wonderful adventure of creating minniature trees if it was not for those very rigid instructions.

But just like mixing colors and adding light and shade in a painting, choosing to use a bright red on it's own rather than add a little green to make it more natural. You can fade and have a wide range of shades for a more realistic look, or work with only 3(White, grey, black) if you want a high contrast look. Those primary tree styles can and most certainly do overlap and i think the originators of our art had a greater understanding of that than what we realize.
It happens in nature and it has been done in pots.
We should firstly want what our idols wanted. Not nessecarily do what they did.

It is a personal choice.

This topic seemed like a good place to place my thoughts. Make of it what you will.
Just like those books the reading material and pictures on the internet helped me greatly.
Thank you all for providing thought provoking material and growing this artform.