I’ve did a few tsumami craft art pieces with removable hair pins last year as part of my The Pathos of Things collection, but kinda lost steam on that project. I’ve been slowly picking at prep work and finalizing ideas for The Pathos of Things, but while I’ve been dithering on that project I’ve gotten some interest in tsumami-ga (tsumami craft art) from other people. I created this piece on commission for one of my favorite streamers, Choi.

She loves koi fish, and wanted a wall-oriented piece after seeing the koi fish I made for the Koi & Wave Tiara a while back. So, I did up a quick sketch for a pair of koi – one red fish and one blue – with a stream and some water lilies and got started on the tsumami craft soon after.

I did most of the tsumami craft on my twitch stream, but since I’m not a confident painter I made the watercolor stream painting for the background off stream.

I painted the stream with a combination of Winsor Newton Cotman and Stoneground pearlescent watercolor paints. The sparkle of the pearlescent paint doesn’t come across well in the pictures, but has a delicate shine in person. I added some details and cleaned up some edges once the paint dried using a white gel pen.

After I finished painting I wasn’t quite sure I liked it. I was thinking about trashing the painting and starting over. It was late in the evening, and sometimes when I’m tired my brain takes on a bit of a negative bent. When I looked at it the following day, I actually felt a lot better about it – and I’m happy that I didn’t listen to the negative voice in my head when I was tired.

I picked out a simple shadow box frame from Michael’s in a greyish medium brown. I think it has a bit of a driftwood feel, which meets nicely with the watery motif of this tsumami-ga piece.

I think I might make another version of this piece at a later time, with more water lilies and maybe some lily pads. My Mom is a big fan of koi fish as well, and she was hinting that she might like her own tsumami-ga koi piece. But, next up I have some cherry blossom oriented pieces to work on, and I’d like to make some progress on the Winter miniature canvas for The Pathos of Things collection. I’ve got some crane base pieces left, and was planning to make a crane with pine piece for it.

Anyhoo, if that sounds interesting to you I hope you’ll join me tomorrow, on Twitch where I’ll be hanging out with Hissabelle and making art this weekend. Come for the chill crafty times and drop a follow to find out when I’m live.