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# Invisible: Abbott Thayer and the Art of Camouflage
- URL: https://techspec.cc/invisible-abbott-thayer-and-the-art-of-camouflage/
- Published: 2023-11-30T04:42:13.000Z
- Updated: 2024-09-15T05:03:32.000Z
- Author: techspec
- Tags: documentary, painting, camouflage, camo

[Abbott H. Thayer](http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/thayer/?ref=techspec.cc) is now best known for his portraiture and paintings of angels, such as [this one](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abbott%5FHanderson%5FThayer%5F-%5FAngel%5F-%5FSmithsonian.jpg?ref=techspec.cc) from 1887 held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He was also obsessed with nature, particularly how animals could disappear through their color patterns into a landscape.

Thayer identified two visual phenomena undergirding this invisibility: “**obliterative countershading**” and “**disruptive patterning.**” In the first, animal skins achieve an illusion of monochrome flatness via coloration darkest in sunlit parts and lightest in areas generally bathed in shadows: examples include the light bellies of otherwise dark rabbit coats or the silver undersides of sharks. The resulting visual compression of a three-dimensional form produces an illusion of monochrome flatness. The second principle takes this illusion to the next level of protective concealment: mottled patterns corresponding to the animal’s habitat disrupt the contours of its flat silhouette, resulting in an impression of *not being there*. 

[download link](https://biesfeyrg7o7bmmyvgmji34ebaomiiw67jmz4zjdyod7ibcc26pa.arweave.net/CgkikxE33fCxmKmYlG-ECBzEIt76WZ5lI8OH9ARC154?ref=techspec.cc)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/14/ee/14eef3be-ca5a-434b-8324-fa1f874026f1/content/images/2023/11/naturecamo01-1.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/14/ee/14eef3be-ca5a-434b-8324-fa1f874026f1/content/images/2023/11/Abbott-Handerson-Thayer--Blue-Jays-in-Winter.jpg)