The Swedish artist Anders Zorn (18 February 1860 – 22 August 1920) was one of Sweden’s foremost artists and famous for his limited palette. It is reported that he used only three colours for most of his works — yellow ochre, vermillion and ivory black, plus white.

The result of this combination were some beautifully harmonious paintings. This particular limited palette was said to be ideal for painting the skin tones of the human figure.

The reason Zorn’s paintings seem so harmonious is because he adds all three colours to most of the mixtures. When painting something yellow, for example, a small amount of both red and black are added to the mixture. The same is done for other colour combinations. One of the challenges is creating green from the combination of yellow ochre and black. I found mixing yellow ochre and black gave me a lovely muted green, but it lacked intensity and vibrancy. The resulting varieties of green are quite muted and certainly not as exciting as a mixture using a higher chromatic yellow. To add to the optical intensity the colour can be placed next to a red (green and red are complimentary colours on the colour wheel). This affect is known as simultaneous contrast. This refers to the manner in which the colours of two different objects affect each other. The effect is more noticeable when shared. By placing the green next to a red, the results will be perceived as a much more intense green. To achieve any cool colours, one has to tint the ivory black with white. Ivory black has a blueish tint with the addition of white. The resulting cool grey can then be used in the painting as a contrast to the warms produced by yellows and reds.

I painted cropped areas of Zorn’s works to study this concept and work at understanding the Zorn Palette. As a beginner for the best results one needs to stick to a limited palette. I work only in acrylics because I prefer the quick drying quality of acrylics in that it allows me to work over painted areas much quicker than with oil. That and the fact that I am allergic to a lot of the thinning agents required for painting in oils.
Using the Zorn palette tackles the myth that you can’t achieve subtle skin tones with acrylics, as well as the use of black in portraiture, and thirdly understanding the intensity of different pigments and how they behave when placed next to each other. Using the Zorn principals I painted two portraits; one using a light skin tone value mix, and a 2nd using a warm skin tone value mix. Portraiture is new to me and only recently have I attempted sketching portraits. The next step was painting them. To do this successfully I need to master this within the confines of a limited palette, which will help me get to grips with different skin tones.

Making the colour chart was a pain and a laborious one at that, but the headache was worth it. I had to employ my husband in the end to help me with the maths involved in creating blocks to paint the colour swatches in. I know it sounds sad, but anything vaguely mathematically seems to scramble my brain and my logical thought process. I like to blame this phenomenon on my year 6 Maths teacher, Mr Booth. The reality is, he was probably as frustrated as I was with my inability to grasp any mathematical concept, but I digress…. This exercise is about getting to know the extent of Zorn’s limited palette and how it works before I embark on painting any portraits solo.

Cool skin tone value mix – Zorn limited palette
Portrait
Acylic on mdf panel
15 cm X 20 cm

Cool skin tone value mix – Zorn limited palette, close-up #1

Cool skin tone value mix – Zorn limited palette, close-up #2

Cool skin tone value mix – Zorn limited palette, close-up #3

Cool skin tone value mix – Zorn limited palette, close-up #4

Warm skin tone value mix – Zorn limited palette
Portrait
Acylic on mdf panel
15 cm X 20 cm

Warm skin tone value mix – Zorn limited palette, close-up #1

Warm skin tone value mix – Zorn limited palette, close-up #2

Warm skin tone value mix – Zorn limited palette, close-up #3