Pond creatures (f79v)

[Koen G]

In further studying the paint vs. line problem, I decided to trace the lines of the three "swimming" creatures on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. . 
For the full account you can check You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., but I'll put the most important stuff here.

Problems with this image in the manuscript:

• In some places, the lines are covered in the thick, green paint, making them harder to see
  
  
• …or totally impossible to see.
  
  
• The color, white background and green water don’t “follow the lines”. This results in a confusing patchwork crossing the borders of the creatures in various places.
  
  
• At some places where the green paint dries at the edges, it creates a darker line which can be mistaken for a creature outline.
  
  
• Some parts, like the tails on the blue and the red one, have been totally covered in “water”.
  

So I traced all visible lines, and this is the result:


Some observations:

• Red and Blue have forked tails like Green.
  
  
• Red has a ridged back.
  
  
• Blue has a saw pattern on the top of his snout and a line pattern on his back.
  
  
• Yellow has a forked snout. It’s small, but clear upon close inspection.
  

This leads me to believe that Green, Blue and Red belong to the same “class”, the forked tail might represent "fish tails". That doesn’t mean that these three are fish, but the forked tail communicates that they were seen as something like that, i.e. associated with a watery habitat. They are distinguished by three different patterns: Green has dots running across his flank, Blue has a subtle pattern of lines on his back, and Red has a ridged back. Whether this means that they are different species, I don’t know.

Yellow has been given a different tail, a fuller body and a different neck. His stance seems to suggest hostility or fear towards Blue, and perhaps also Red and Green.

So what do you guys think?