Most common flag colors

Steve Faeembra created this infographic to show which international flag colors are the most popular.

Red, white, and blue and not only the most popular individual colors, but they're also the most popular colors in combination with each other. According to Wikipedia, there are over 30 countries and territories with red, white, and blue flags:

 Australia  Cambodia  Chile  Cook Islands   Costa Rica  Cuba  Croatia  Czech Republic  Dominican Republic  Faroe Islands  Fiji  France  Iceland  Laos  Liberia  Luxembourg  Nepal  Netherlands  New Zealand  North Korea  Norway  Panama  Paraguay  Puerto Rico  Russia  Samoa  Sint Maarten  Slovakia  Slovenia  Taiwan  Thailand  United Kingdom  United States

via Geekosystem

Wikipedia: List of countries by colors of national flags

Memory Games of Artist-Reporters

Before reproducing photographs became efficient and practical, newspapers relied on artists to make visual reports, and this job tested their memory. Many of the painters who later became part of the Ashcan School, such as John Sloan and William Glackens, served this apprenticeship.

In the book Painters of the Ashcan School: The Immortal Eight, Bennard Perlman describes the games that newspaper sketch artists played: "Constantly confronted with the task of sharpening their sponge-like minds in order to absorb and store details of every possible variety, the artists repeatedly tested one another, using the routines they had discovered in Lecoq de Boisbaudran's book, Training of the Memory in Art."

Frederick Gruger

"'Glack, I'll give you five minutes to go into that room and tell us what's on the west wall,' Shinn would challenge. When time was up Glackens emerged, ready to astound his colleagues by systematically rattling off even the most minutely detailed objects. 'Guess how many steps there are from here to there?' one of the group demanded. 'How many tables are in the next room?' Again and again an observant Glackens quietly uttered the answers with consistent accuracy, a feat which gained him the title 'the photographic mind most likely to succeed.'"


Above: Everett Shinn, Robert Henri, John Sloan
"Often the artist-reporters would congregate outside of the Press to engage in another favorite pastime, that of walking behind a stranger in an effort to observe the characteristics of his movement. Camera-like eyes would register the shuffle of trousers, the swing of an arm, or the twist and turn of a body — a memory test which served as a practical study of anatomy."

"For the newspaper artists, these spare-time diversions were great sport, like 'college days, all the fun and no examinations,' as John Sloan once put it. But they also represented a remarkable schooling for men who would spend the rest of their lives recording, first on paper, then on canvas, the realities of the everyday American scene.
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From the book: Painters of the Ashcan School: The Immortal Eight by Bennard Perlman.
Book: Memory Drawing: Perceptual Training and Recall by Darren Rousar
Free digital book of the French classic "The Training of Memory in Art and the Education of the Artist" by Père Lecoq
Illustration Art blog: "A Week of Gruger"

Oil Worker from Tunis

Five years ago when I was traveling through Tunisia, I was waiting in an airport across from an oil worker who agreed to let me sketch a quick portrait of him. 

He was a very nice man and seemed to enjoy having his portrait drawn.

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Previously on GurneyJourney: Video "Portable Portraits"

Portraits at the Zoo

(Direct link to video) I arrived at the Bronx Zoo early yesterday to do some watercolor portraits. I had no luck with the mandrills, who were too hyper, so I moved on to the gorillas.


One of the females came down to pick up big handfulls of carrots that were scattered in front of the window. I couldn't interest her in what I was doing. She shyly tried to disguise herself with a leafy branch as she grabbed the carrots. The she went halfway back in the enclosure to enjoy her breakfast, where I hoped she would hold still for a while.


The big silverback male was named Ernie. He coolly surveyed the people watching him, and then he looked up to the side. I was so impressed with the powerful forms of his head as I sketched him in watercolor, gouache, and watercolor pencils.


There was a giraffe standing quite still in the indoor enclosure. In the video you can see how I laid in the background with the opaque gouache mixed with ultramarine blue watercolor to get a smooth tone.
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Media: Watercolor Pocket Set, watercolor pencils, watercolor sketchbook, and various sizes of flat watercolor brushes. 
Bronx Zoo (also called Wildlife Conservation Society)
Previously: Gorilla Portraits

Illustration magazine: Stavrinos and Lindsay

Issue 41 of Illustration magazine is now available. The cover feature is called "Moonfall: The Life and Art of George Stavrinos" by Bradford R. Hamann.

Stavrinos (1948-1990) was famous for his fashion and advertising illustration, elegantly drawn in pencil.

The other article is called "Norman Lindsay in London" by Louis Irmo. Norman Lindsay (1879-1969) was a versatile Australian artist known for his etchings, political cartoons, sculptures, and models, but this article focuses mainly on his risqué watercolor nudes.

Illustration magazine is 80 pages printed in full color, and you can preview it online.