ILLUSTRATION CAPTIONS

Fig. 01: My own diagram at the top, first published in Art and Camouflage (1981), was an attempt to demonstrate that random dazzle camouflage schemes could be easily produced by overlaying an embedded figure diagram onto the profile of a ship. The other three are my reconstructions (originated by US camoufleur Everett L. Warner) of cut-out silhouettes of ships, overlayed on printed text, to show that larger-sized shapes (letters) are more effective for disruption than are smaller ones.

Fig. 02: In 1918, Warner (as shown by his drawing) discovered a new method of devising distortion patterns by cutting up wooden ship models, then variously rearranging them.

Fig. 03: Somewhat like Warner, I covered wooden blocks with black-and-white disruptive shapes, arranged them arbitrarily, then viewed them through a cut-out ship silhouette.

Fig. 04: In my experiments, I was in part indebted to artist and naturalist Abbott H. Thayer (whom Warner also knew about), who recommended that any individual could design his/her own field camouflage by looking at their surroundings through a cut-out of their figure.

Fig. 05: In a series of two-stage educational set-ups, Thayer showed how animal camouflage could be replicated by the same use of overlays and silhouettes.

Fig. 06: Thayer’s notebooks have many examples of the use of silhouettes in simulating camouflage.

Figs. 07 and 08: In these two sets of examples, titled “Styles of Art as Styles of Camouflage,” I placed cut-out silhouettes of ships on top of details from famous paintings from the past.

Figs. 09 and 10: In these examples, titled “Quasi-Camouflage: Hypothetical Dazzle Designs,” I used the same silhouette-based procedure, but the cropped images on the lower layer are details of public domain photographs, obtained online.

Enlarged view of one of the hypothetical plans from Fig. 10 below