2 COLOUR MIX

In this four-part series, ANN WITHERIDGE of London Fine Art Studios looks in depth at the four-colour Zorn palette. This month we will create a colour chart to explore the full range of possibilities.

- ANN WITHERIDGE

In this article, we will be continuing with our work on the Zorn palette, a limited set of four basic colours (black, white, red and yellow) that was often used by the Swedish master Anders Zorn. We will be looking in more detail at how to create a range of colours from the four pigments while discussing colour mixing and making a colour chart.

RECREATING A ZORN PALETTE

Traditionally the four pigments used in the Zorn palette would have been Lead White, Yellow Ochre, Vermilion Red and Ivory Black. There are many modern equivalents and substitutes available to us and so it is important to find the right ones for you.

I have been painting for 20 years and really love art materials, so I have become fussy about my favourite white, my favourite red and so on. This isn’t to say they are the best colours in each case, but simply that they are the ones that I like to use and I know how they behave in different situations.

In many countries, Lead White pigment has been banned due to its toxicity. In Europe, it is still available for picture restorers, but it is no longer sold in tubes. In the US, however, it is currently available to artists. Many artists prefer Lead White as it is warmer than Titanium White and has such a beautiful density to it, making it ideal for thick, impasto painting. For this exercise, I’m going to keep it simple and use Michael Harding’s Titanium White, although I do also use Zinc White sometimes and Rembrandt does a great Zinc-Titanium mix.