Hi Rick,
The best thing you could do would be to make a simple test panel, with short pieces of the varius colors and glue them all together (1-2 feet long). You may choose to glue these short pieces of strips in the order or pattern that you think would look good together, ie. light colored next to dark colored etc... Next thing would be to apply a sealcoat of epoxy over half way up this panel, leaving enough of the panel in it's raw state, in order for you to tell what wood it is. Even a small label of the wood species would help, especially years from now, when you may have no clue as to which woods they are. Although this was not my idea for the test panel, it is an excellent way to visualize how the epoxy will affect the woods you are using and which woods will look good together. You could even varnish the bottom couple of inches over the epoxy to test different varnishes, practice with glass of different weights (before the varnish of course). If and when you make this panel, please post pictures for the rest of us. I've been meaning to do this for quite some time now, just haven't got around to it. This should be all it will take to get a true visual of what you have and how it will look. And it doesn't have to be small like a little paint chip, make it as big as you think you'll need and hang it on the wall of your shop. Good luck to you, and please keep us posted.
SMF

: Scott, not a problem at all. In the end, the design I end up with will
: definitely be my own. Like you said, this is "MY" boat. But, for
: discussion's sake, I'll elaborate on why I want to "see" things
: (other builders photos) as opposed to imagining things.....

: I think that the 10% of strips I've mentioned in the original post are
: beautiful (at least when they are laid out on the gara... ahh, boat
: building shop.... floor), and I want to show them off in the best possible
: way on the boat. But, my brain is wired such that by the time my
: imagination places them on the boat, with the boat widths, curves, cockpit
: cutout, darkening affect of the epoxy/glass/varnish etc., I can no longer
: envision the result - it becomes too blury in my minds eye to see the
: final outcome. I need to be able to actually see some representative
: photos of those types of strips placed closely together on a boat, not
: imagine it, to ensure that I'll like the result of my design. In this
: instance, I'm not really seeking photos of the exact design I select, as
: much as examples of how those types of strips look when placed together on
: a boat, then I'll be the judge of whether or not I like the result, and
: make my decisions.

: As a non boat building example, I once painted my house three times in the
: same summer. Each time, I thought the various colors would compliment each
: other and look attractive. I was wrong. The end result was not what I had
: previously imagined. Prior to the 3rd painting, I stumbled across a house
: of my basic layout, with the color scheme that I was trying to achieve. I
: inquired about the colors and went to the paint shop with those color
: names. Individually, I didn't care much for the color when viewed on
: 1" square color chips, although they were in the same color family as
: those I had already tried. Once they got up on the house, in full scale
: and so forth, it was EXACTLY what I was going for the first 2 times.

: Anyway, I hope that made sense. Bottom line --- pictures help me put my
: vision into focus and determine if I'll end up with what I think I'll end
: up with.

: You may have noticed that recently, I've asked a number of questions about
: WRC colors, how they darken, what the raw wood looked like before it was
: "finished", etc. I'm just not wired to imagine the end result,
: so sample photos are VERY, VERY useful to me.

: By the way, I've already selected a very light colored cypress(compared to
: other cypress boards I've sorted through)for the football area. I'm in
: agreement that light colored footballs hide scratches and look nice.

: Thanks for your comments and concerns! This forum is making my first venture
: into boat building much easier and pleasureable!!!

: Rick