AusBonsai

I found this picture of a garden size black pine in Japan in the process of being pruned.
Notice the sharp angular movement in the branches which you cannot achieve with wiring.
Very nice to look at and something to try in our bonsai. It takes longer because you need to remove branches so you can get that sharp change in direction which is actually the natural way pine branches are formed especially in stiff pines like the black.
This branch form was obviously revered by the painters too (see my avatar)

Great picture. You can see really clearly at the apex where leading branches have been cut back and replaced with one further back.

Yeah, wire can only do so much.