UPDATED The term “dazzle painting” was coined in 1917 by its British originator, a Navy lieutenant and marine artist named Norman Wilkinson. He devised it to counter torpedo attacks by German submarines (called U-boats). It was Wilkinson’s idea to apply bewildering, geometric shapes to the surfaces of ships, both military and merchant, to make it a challenge to aim at them through a periscope from a substantial distance, in conditions of visibility that were often less than ideal. Because the targeted ship was moving and because the torpedoes took time to arrive, the submarine gunner had to calculate the speed and direction of the ship, and to aim ahead of the target. Above right SS Empress of Russia (1918) in a convoy of other dazzle-painted ships. Dazzle camouflage was known by other names as well, among them baffle painting, jazz painting, parti-coloring, razzle dazzle, zébrage, eccentric painting, and crazy quilt painting.
 
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Latest Update (2012) Recent developments in the study of dazzle and other kinds of camouflage include the following: • Just published in early 2012 is the third volume in a trilogy of books about modern-era camouflage, both natural and military. SHIP SHAPE: A Dazzle Camouflage Sourcebook, edited by Roy R. Behrens, is an illustrated anthology of twenty-six all but unknown writings by WWI-era camouflage experts, including the various artists who designed the original camouflage plans. more Among other current books about camouflage are Ann Elias, Camouflage Australia: Art, Nature, Science and War (Sydney University Press, 2011); Martin Stevens and Sami Merilaita, eds., Animal Camouflage: Mechanisms and Function (Cambridge University Press, 2011); Henrietta Goodden, Camouflage and Art: Design for Deception in World War II (Unicorn Press, 2007); Hannah Rose Shell, Hide and Seek: Camouflage, Photography and the Media of the Reconnaissance (Zone Books, 2012); and Nicolas Rankin, A Genius for Deception (Oxford University Press, 2008), and others. • Now available online as a downloadable pdf of the first edition of Gerald Handerson Thayer’s Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom (MacMillan, 1909). See online articles about Abbott H. Thayer’s theories of protective coloration by Richard Meryman, Roy R. Behrens, Hannah Rose Shell and Emily Gebhart. In addition, the Archives of American Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum have posted scans of artifacts from Thayer’ papers, his paintings, and his camouflage research. • INVISIBLE: Abbott Thayer and the Art of Camouflage, a documentary film about Thayer was released in 2008. • In early 2009, the Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design held an exhibition of 455 World War I chromolithographed diagrams for ship camouflage, followed by Artists at War: A Symposium Exploring the Connections between Art and Camouflage. Concurrent with this, the library posted a website featuring a number of the plans. Each year, it also publishes full-sized color reproductions of some of the plans, which, for the purpose of fundraising, are then sold at an online store called RISD Works.http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/BobolinkBookshop/ShipShape.htmlhttp://www.bobolinkbooks.com/BobolinkBookshop/Home.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/Camouflage-Australia-Art-nature-science/dp/1920899731/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327253204&sr=1-2http://www.amazon.com/Animal-Camouflage-Mechanisms-Martin-Stevens/dp/0521152577/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327253325&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/Camouflage-Art-Design-Deception-World/dp/0906290872/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327253833&sr=1-3http://www.zonebooks.org/titles/SHEL_HID.htmlhttp://www.amazon.com/Genius-Deception-Cunning-Helped-British/dp/B005ZO6DF2/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327253526&sr=1-1http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022546406http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/A-Painter-of-Angels-Became-the-Father-of-Camouflage.htmlhttp://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/364/1516/497.fullhttp://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/33/shell.phphttp://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/4/hiddentalents.phphttp://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/abbott-handerson-thayer-and-thayer-family-papers-7440http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/results/?id=4766http://abbott-thayer.blogspot.com/http://dazzle.risd.edu/http://www.risdworks.com/p-293-dazzle-camouflage-print-port-171.aspxshapeimage_12_link_0shapeimage_12_link_1shapeimage_12_link_2shapeimage_12_link_3shapeimage_12_link_4shapeimage_12_link_5shapeimage_12_link_6shapeimage_12_link_7shapeimage_12_link_8shapeimage_12_link_9shapeimage_12_link_10shapeimage_12_link_11shapeimage_12_link_12shapeimage_12_link_13shapeimage_12_link_14shapeimage_12_link_15shapeimage_12_link_16
Pictured above are three important players in World War I American ship camouflage. Harold Van Buskirk (1894-1980) (left) was an architect and legendary Olympic fencing champion, who initially served as a member of the Submarine Defense Association. Then, in 1918, as a lieutenant in the US Naval Reserve, he was placed in charge of the Camouflage Section of the Bureau of Construction and Repair. Within that unit were two subsections, the Design Subsection (located in Washington DC) and Research Subsection (at Eastman Kodak Laboratories in Rochester NY). These subsections were in turn commanded by artist Everett L. Warner (1877-1963) (center) and physicist Loyd A. Jones (1884-1954) (right), respectively. Below in this column are photos of various stages in the process of designing WWI dazzle ship camouflage.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Warnerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyd_A._Jonesshapeimage_14_link_0shapeimage_14_link_1
 
Below WWI-era British postcards of paintings of various dazzle camouflaged ships. Author’s collection. Gift of Les Coleman.
• In recent years, marine biologists and others have studied the amazing ability of cuttlefish to change their appearance in response to environmental changes. They will even do their best to match a black and white checkerboard. For a vivid film account of this, see NOVA: Kings of Camouflage. morehttp://www.amazon.com/NOVA-Cuttlefish-Kings-Camouflage-Nova/dp/B000PY510Kshapeimage_16_link_0
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Click here for a roster of artists, architects, theatre designers, zoologists and others who contributed to camouflage in the 20th centuryCamouflageArtists.htmlshapeimage_25_link_0
Above in photos 1 through 4 are some of the typical stages in designing WWI US ship camouflage. (1) The model-making room at the Design Section in Washington DC, in which the following five artists are working (left to right): Douglas D. Ellington, Kenneth MacIntire, Frederick C. Clayter, Richards, and Sullivan. (2) The model-painting room, in which the camouflage artists include (left to right) Everett L. Warner, Frederick Waugh, John Gregory, Gordon Stevenson, Manley K. Nash, and M. O’Connell. A sign on the wall above Warner reads “Keep It Simple.” (3) The model ships having been painted, they were then observed in a testing theatre (positioned on a turntable, they were viewed through a periscope simulator by experienced naval officers). The person shown here is US Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. (4) Once ship plans were approved, the models were passed on to the drafting room, where the camouflage proposals were translated into construction diagrams that were then provided to dock officers for use in painting the actual ships. Warner, Van Buskirk, Waugh, Gregory, MacIntire and Nash are also in this photograph. Seated at the front table in the center is Raymond J. Richardson, who was in charge of the drafting room. Click here for an annotated list of books and other writings on camouflage in the past 100+ years. Above (left) is a photograph of Lieutenant Harold Van Buskirk (on the right) and Ensign Raymond J. Richardson, comparing one of the ship models with its construction diagram. At left are the original plans for the camouflage of the USS Leviathan, an American troop ship (captured from the Germans, it was formerly the Vaterland) of which other views are shown below on this page. Note that different designs were proposed for the two sides, port and starboard, and that the patterns were altered somewhat in being applied to the actual ship. “At every level, from brute camouflage to poetic vision, the linguistic capacity to conceal, misinform, leave ambiguous, hypothesize, invent, is indispensable to the equilibrium of human consciousness.” —George Steiner Click here for camouflage related inventions on file at the US Patent Office
As discussed in detail on this website, American Impressionist painter Everett L. Warner was one of the leading contributors to US ship camouflage during both World Wars. Through the courtesy of his son, Thomas Warner, we have been able to post many of the photographs on this website, including those (at left) of four of the wooden ship models that his father and his colleagues made at the Design Section in Washington DC. (Unfortunately, other models, as well as various documents, were destroyed in 1972 in a fire at Warner’s painting studio.) In addition, several of the photographs on this page were provided by Lyn Malone, who is the granddaughter of Harold Van Buskirk.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Warnerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Van_Buskirkshapeimage_33_link_0shapeimage_33_link_1
ARE YOU related to artists, architects, designers, scenographers, zoologists, or others who contributed to camouflage (military, civilian), in one way or another? Do you have historic photographs, documents or models? Please let us know.
The refinement and expansion of this website (including additional subsections) is ongoing. Check for updates on our blog. Still in process are subsections having to do with Everett L. Warner, Abbott H. Thayer, Harold Van Buskirk, Loyd A. Jones, William Andrew Mackay, Frederick Waugh, Norman Wilkinson and others, and such subjects as the scientific rationale for designing camouflage, camouflage schools, civilian involvement in camouflage, the use of camouflage by artists (current and historical), and so on. http://camoupedia.blogspot.com/EverettWarner.htmlDazzleThayer.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Van_Buskirkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyd_A._Joneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mackayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Waughhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Wilkinson_%28artist%29shapeimage_35_link_0shapeimage_35_link_1shapeimage_35_link_2shapeimage_35_link_3shapeimage_35_link_4shapeimage_35_link_5shapeimage_35_link_6shapeimage_35_link_7
contact “The most familiar kinds of camouflage make one thing appear to be two, two things one, and so on.”—RB
dazzle camouflage High Difference Camouflage (hodgepodge) compiled by Roy R. Behrens copyright © 2012 http://www.uni.edu/artdept/behrens.htmlshapeimage_39_link_0
Bobolink Books | Iowa Home Page | CAMOUPEDIA | How Ballast Began | How Form Functions | WPA http://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Index/Home.htmlhttp://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Iowa/Home.htmlhttp://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Camoupedia/DazzleCamouflage.htmlhttp://www.bobolinkbooks.com/BALLAST/HowBallastBegan.htmlhttp://www.bobolinkbooks.com/Gestalt/HowFormFunctions.htmlhttp://www.bobolinkbooks.com/BALLAST/WPA.htmlshapeimage_40_link_0shapeimage_40_link_1shapeimage_40_link_2shapeimage_40_link_3shapeimage_40_link_4shapeimage_40_link_5
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we also publish a camouflage blog CAMOUFLAGE ARTISTS (called camoufleurs) make it an arduous challenge to see a figure against a background (called blending or background matching), or to distinguish one category of object from another (mimicry). Less familiar but potentially far more effective is disruptive or dazzle camouflage in which a single thing appears to be a hodgepodge (or mishmash) of unrelated components. Disruptive or dazzle camouflage and its corollary, coincident disruption (consisting of blending and dazzle combined), are found throughout the natural world. Such tactics have also been widely employed throughout human history. shipping now poetry of sight blog Click here to learn more about these books All three of these books are available online at the publisher’s website (with quick international shipping) or at Amazon.com under “new and used.”
• The completion and release of a new documentary film on The Ghost Army is anticipated in 2012. • In 2010, an exhibition on dazzle camouflage was featured at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. • In 2011, at the Department of Theatre at Ohio State University, Professors Lesley Ferris and Mary Tarantino originated a performance/exhibition called The Camouflage Project. It premiered at an international conference with the same name. Some of the scenery and physical props were in fact digital images that were projected onto appropriately shaped white box-like forms, as designed by the OSU Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design. http://ghostarmy.org/ExhibAAC.htmlhttp://camouflage.osu.edu/http://accad.osu.edu/researchmain/gallery/project_gallery/camouflage.htmlshapeimage_52_link_0shapeimage_52_link_1shapeimage_52_link_2shapeimage_52_link_3
Available now: Copies of SHIP SHAPE: A Dazzle Camouflage Sourcebook (2012) Click here for online purchase of prints, posters and t-shirts