ColzoArt - Artist and Illustrator I want to start this post with something that might seem obvious as an artist, but I love colour. I love how when you mix two (or sometimes more) colours together, you can create a whole new colour – it’s like alchemy. I also love that to get started with painting, you don’t actually need to have a lot of paints… although I do own a lot of convenience colours but more on that another time! This post is about using a limited colour palette and to show you the range of colour that you can achieve. There is such an interesting range of hues you can get from a limited palette and it makes you really think outside of the box.
Over on Instagram recently, I have been live talking through colour, first using a split primary (red, yellow & blue in warm and cool tones), then explaining the “Zorn” palette. In this post I’m going to expand on the Zorn palette and talk through my experimenting with changing the red for a different red hue.
So, what colours are in the Zorn palette? The Zorn palette is made up of a limited palette consisting of vermillion, yellow ochre, black and white. Vermillion is a red with an orange bias so when you use it as a primary red you get some really interesting warm tones.
The Zorn palette is named after the Swedish painter, Anders Zorn (born 1860), and while he wasn’t the only painter to use the limited palette, he is the one that has been attributed to it.
For these colour wheels, I’ve used Winsor & Newton designers gouache as it has a beautiful, rich, matte consistency making it perfect for photographing. For the first red, I’ve used “flame red” which is made up of PO72 & PR170. In the second colour wheel I’ve used a single pigment red “Winsor red” which would be closer to a “true red” made from PR252
As you can see from this image, using the flame red you can achieve some really interesting, earthy oranges and deep browns. The yellow ochre mixed with the black gives beautiful olive greens.
For this next one, I swapped out the reds and as you can see, there is a difference this makes. I added white to this wheel to tint the colours. Adding white also made the colour shift more obvious.
In this colour wheel, I’ve used a single pigment red, “winsor red” and as you can see there is a different hue to the oranges. It is a subtle hue change. Mixing the red with black gives you a deep red & browns. In this colour wheel, I’ve added white which shows the earthy purples you can achieve when using a single pigment red.
How to use the zorn palette?
Anders Zorn was a skilled portrait painter and this palette really lends itself to portraiture, but it can also be used to make really interesting, atmospheric landscapes. I’ve used this palette to make a landscape. I did include a blue in my landscape painting so that I could make a bright sky. The beauty of learning the rules in art is knowing when to break the rules.
Top tips for mixing
For this post, I’ve used designers gouache which is an opaque watercolour. The best way that I’ve found to mix colours with gouache is to start with a lot of water in the paint and gradually build the paint up to a thicker consistency. Another. tip I have is to have fun, practice your mixing with these colours, make the colour wheel and see what you can come up with. I’d love to hear if you try this limited colour palette.
