Anders Zorn (1860-1920), the Swedish Impressionist, is renowned for his use of a limited palette of colours. His so-called ‘Zorn palette’ is now widely used to help students learn about colour theory and mixing.
If you’d like to learn more about Anders Zorn and discover how to create some of his paintings, then check out my 31-page ebook here: Anders Zorn: Palette & Painting Method Ebook
Anders Zorn EbookThis is a limited palette that uses just FOUR oil pigments as follows:
Originally Lead White
Or Lamp Black
Often replaced with Cadmium Red (Light)
Set up your palette, so that values 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 using Titanium White and Ivory Black form a column on the left-hand side.
And the two actual colours that will be used are placed horizontally on top, in order from left to right: Yellow Ochre and Vermillion. Allow enough space between these to mix an analogous colour between them.
Just as there is a string of values between white and black, now start mixing a string of values for each colour: Yellow Ochre and Vermillion.
In the third column from the left, I’ve mixed up a new colour by mixing Yellow Ochre with Vermillion, creating a new colour that falls halfway between the two. Another string of values is created from this.
Allow time and freedom to experiment with colours, to find the right ones to use in your painting.
This is a simple, small-scale colour chart. You can widen the range of possibilities into an even larger chart, including three-way colour mixes. The resulting palette provides a guesstimate of what colours you might need in your painting and how they can be achieved.
If you’d like to learn more about Anders Zorn and discover how to create some of his paintings, then check out my 31-page ebook here: Anders Zorn: Palette & Painting Method Ebook