78 Artists&Illustrators
THE ZORN PALETTE
too light, of course we can’t just add
black as every colour involves value,
temperature and chroma.
We now know there is a vast variety
of colours (values, temperatures and
chroma) available to us with just the
mixing of the limited palette. Another
nuance, which is not shown in the
chart, is that the colour we see is
dependent on its neighbouring colour.
So, we see the red-white mix as a
completely different colour if it is next
to a yellow-black as opposed to a
black-red. Having learnt to mix all the
varieties of colour in the Zorn palette,
we can easily adjust the colours
depending on its neighbour.
How many more varieties can we
seem to create by neighbouring a
contrasting colour or value?
CONCLUSION
The Zorn palette is best suited to
portraits and figures. It’s a fun test to
use a Zorn palette for a still life as
well though, where I know I could just
dip into a Cadmium Yellow or Cobalt
Blue and get the immediate effect
ABOVE Anders
Zorn, A Musical
Family, 1905,
oil on canvas,
130x100cmVIKTOR FORDELL/NATIONALMUSEUM SWEDENI want, but I am forced to create
alternative solutions. Having to push
myself to use the Zorn palette really
helps me understand just how much
we can manipulate the colours.
Zorn’s A Musical Family is a good
example of just how vibrant he can
make his colours appear. By using
very pure pigments, next to
contrasting values he has given us
the whole gambit of the potential of
the Zorn palette. Aside from Zorn, Girl
with a Pearl Earring painter JohannesVermeer and Scottish Romantic
master Sir Henry Raeburn both jump
out to me as artists whose work has
a jewel-like quality and a richness of
colour. Yet I think it is actually their
limitation and control of colour that
makes their paintings appear so rich.
In the third article we will be looking
at how to use the Zorn palette to
paint a portrait, incorporating both
last month’s painting of the egg and
the colour charts we made here.
http://www.londonfineartstudios.comFortheaccentsattheendand
the highest light masses, I often
add a more vibrant colour. The
effect of that accent colour is so
much more vibrant than if I had
access to it from the start.
You can see that in my painting
of Battersea Park [below], in
which I used the Zorn palette,
but substituted Ivory Black for
Ultramarine Blue. It was finished
with few tiny accents of
Cadmium Yellow, a colour I
didn’t use anywhere else.SAVING THE ACCENTS