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Limited palettes - how did Zorn do it?

Limited palettes - Zorn and the Zorn Palette

In art, sometimes less is more. Sometimes it is better to merely suggest detail than paint every hair on a head.

Sometimes it is better to use fewer colours than more.

A good exercise is to paint using a reduced palette.  It can create a more harmonious image, and it teaches us how to mix paint rather than buy a new colour.

The most famous reduced palette is the Zorn Palette - which takes its name from Anders Zorn, the Swedish artist.

So we will be painting using just 4 tubes of paint!

  • Titanium White

  • Ivory Black (Lamp Black also works)

  • Yellow Ochre

  • Cadmium Red

If you would like to take part, please bring along

  • a canvas/board.

  • These 4 pigments (or the closest you have)

  • a palette knife for a bit of mixing

A self-portrait of Anders Zorn, smoking a cigarette and working with his famous 4 colour palette. Naturally the painting itself was painted in the Zorn palette.

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5 February

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19 February

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