Studio

Norman Wilkinson (1878-1971) was a distinguished marine artist, a Royal Navy Reservist and the recognised inventor of dazzle camouflage for warships. The Scottish academic, John Graham Kerr, was also working on camouflage designs in parallel with Wilkinson based on parti-colouring. This was a concealment design strategy as opposed to Wilkinson's disruptive design strategy which was aimed at confusing the enemy with regards to speed and direction. This was an important discriminator between the claims made by each designer when inventorship rights to dazzle camouflage were being established. In 1917 the Admiralty selected designs proposed by Wilkinson and these were applied to ships in the Royal Navy. 

Image: Drawing of a dazzle camouflage pattern for a warship with colour notes by Norman Wilkinson

Ship profiles for HM Ships Mohawk, Broke/ Tipperary, Rifleman, Medina/ Moresby, Basilisk, Wolverine and ORP Blyskawica appear in our screenprints and constructions. In addition to these we have based outlines on ships present at the Battle of Jutland such as HM Ships Britannia, Lion, Black Prince, Tiger, Shark and Queen Mary. All of our camouflage patterns are designed by us.

Gallery model based on the Polish ship ORP Blyskawica which defended the town of Cowes from an air raid in May 1942. The multi-colour dazzle camouflage is our own design.