1 THE BASICS
In this series of articles, I wanted to take a look at the Zorn palette to show you how you can use it in your paintings and how it can benefit your working practice.
We will use the Zorn palette to look in detail at colour, colour relationships and the advantages of using it when it comes to portraiture.
WHAT IS THE “ZORN PALETTE”?
The Zorn palette – also known as the “limited palette” – is a restricted palette of four basic colours: black, white, red and yellow. When mixing with them, I consider these the primary colours and white – with black the substitute for blue.
Some also regard the Zorn palette as two colours – yellow and red – with black and white pigments serving to control the chroma and the value. Either way, the fundamental colours are definitely limited.
WHY IS IT CALLED THE “ZORN PALETTE”?
The limited palette has been ascribed to Anders Zorn, a Swedish painter born in 1860. He was not the first to use it, and nor did he use it exclusively, however he is an artist who greatly excelled with it.
Many artists throughout the
