Drawing Ideas for Kids: Dazzle Camouflage

Few people know this amazing story, during World War 1 thousands of ships were painted in strange dazzle camouflage.  It is one of the coolest art stories ever.  This is from a book I wrote about the topic.  How many ships do you see?  

This is a grandfather telling the story of Dazzle Camouflage.  

This old ship was repainted gray after the war.  He tells the story of how art saved the day to this small boat.

This a ship before it had Dazzle Camouflage.

This is what it looked like after it was painted.  The cool thing about this story is that some of the designs are unknown because the military didn't like the funky ways the ships were painted.  

A lot of famous artists of the time were involved in the project.

It sounds like a crazy story, but German U-boats were deadly.  They were patrolling the seas around England.  Germany was trying to starve England into surrendering.  It was working.  The English were scared and desperate.

An English Naval lieutenant had an idea.  He was an artist.  At the time, radar didn't exist.  To sink a ship, a U-boat had to know the ship's speed and direction.  His idea was to distract the U-boats with crazy colors and designs.

Imagine you are looking through a periscope.  How many ships do you see.  

Drawing Ideas for Kids:  Try it!  Dazzle something!