In contrast to yesterday’s experiment, I thought a lot about today’s watercolor. Before I continue, I must apologize. When I wrote, The Last Rubber Image, I thought I was done with latex masking fluid. However, I couldn’t resist another whack at it. After all, it was fun dripping and spreading it around.

First step

So the other day, I poured some masking fluid onto some watercolor paper and put it aside. Today, in looking for blank paper on which to paint, I came across the rubberized paper.

Original intention

I intended to try painting some scenes from my very strange dream last night. Actually, it was not strange to me. Telling someone else is another story. Some people might find it unusual to hear of such things as a giant eel being transported on a speed boat, a lost space in a parking garage, or a formation of secret service vehicles whose occupants’ main task was to fling elephant dung to calm the waters.

Next steps

This is where the thinking came in. I found myself looking at what I had painted for a clue as to what to paint next.

Oddly enough, the latex-prepared watercolor paper seemed to lend itself to portraying my dream from last night. I added a quick sketch of the garage. There was an eely-shaped blob already present.

The presence of an eel on a speedboat inspired the use of the color blue, and I found myself painting horizontal dashes of blue. I used a blue wash on a central area, which then suggested the form of a surfacing whale (although I don’t remember a whale being present in my dream). The blue-gray arcs on the right side of the picture was supposed to represent sound waves that a whale might hear. It could also represent a curtain being pulled back. there was an octopus blob that only presented itself after I removed the masking material. (I did have to add a few tentacles.) Another shape that was revealed after removing the masking suggested a second sucking creature attached to the whale.

The icons that I had rendered in latex became odd sea creatures or simply symbols as I colored them a contrasting orange color.

So, in contrast to yesterday’s image, perhaps too much thought went into today’s experiment…

I left out the elephant dung.