Camouflage Origins

The History of Camouflage The term camouflage comes from the French word camoufler meaning "to blind or veil." Camouflage, which is also called protective concealment. This means to disguise an object, in plain sight, in order to conceal it from something or someone.

In the late 1800’s, an American artist named Abbott Thayer made an important observation about animals in nature that became a useful tool in developing modern camouflage. After studying wildlife, Thayer noticed the coloring of many animals graduated from dark, on the backs, to almost white on their bellies. This is an important property that is very useful in modern camouflage. This graduation from dark to light breaks up the surface of an object and makes it harder to see the object as one thing. The object loses its 3D qualities and appears flat.

Camouflage, as we know it today, was born in 1915 when the French army created a new unit called the camouflage division. Artists were among the first people the French army called in to help develop camouflage for the use during W.W.I.

Artist research - Patrick Caulfield

Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Caulfield studied at the Chelsea School of Art from 1956 to 1960, and at the Royal College of Art from 1960 to 1963, where his fellow pupils included David Hockney and R. B. Kitaj. After he left, he returned to Chelsea as a teacher.
In 1964, he exhibited at the New Generation show at London's Whitechapel Gallery, which resulted in him being associated with pop art.

I like the way in this artists work he focuses on the use of colours and tones to create the camouflage. for example he uses the colour blue on the last picture to act as a shadow to hide other tones on the shapes and object. this is also reflected in the red image.

Artist research - Michael Craig-Martin

Michael Craig-Martin
Michael Craig-Martin was born in Dublin in 1941 and educated in the United States, studying fine art at Yale University. He returned to Europe in the mid-1960s, becoming one of the key figures in the first generation of British conceptual artists. He was a professor at Goldsmith's College from 1974-1988 and 1994-2000, where he remained a powerful influence on the emerging British artists.

These two images Aesthetically pleasing due to all the stong vibrant colours with the contrast of the strong black outlines of the shapes. I like the way that the artist has used camouflage with keeping to similar colour but highlighting key aspects of each item, for example: shoe sole.

I find the way the artist had integrated typography into the design with the style of camouflage is really effective. this is because he has used other lettering and symbols to hide and distort the other objects and type. This is a key factor for camouflage to achieve

Research on different camouflages

Different types of man made camouflage

^ Selection of different camouflage

Snowy camouflage: This type of 'camo' is tradtionaly used in an Snowy, rocky environment to help blend in with all the rocks, shadows and natural formation in that environment.

Woodland Camouflage: This 'camo' is traditionally used in woodland/forest environtment to help blend into the trees, shrubs and undergrowth.

NATURAL Camouflage

Examples of natural camouflage

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This is a good example of how camouflage can also be about shape rather than just colour alone

Initial Sketches

INITIAL SKETCHES

Mind map