Zorn Palette Webinars - St Marks Square

I am participating in an on-line webinar run by Ken Vloothuis over 4 Saturday evenings. It is all about using the Zorn palette to become familiar with values.

The Painting

St Marks Square WIP, 40x50cm (16"x20") oil on canvas

Last Saturday's subject was St Marks Basilica. The building was loosely painted with the focus on the activity in front of the church i.e. the people.
It was an interesting exercise and my first time of

• painting a complicated building and 
• putting people into a painting
• using black as a major colour

The palette
 The Zorn palette uses only two colours

• cadmium red and 
• yellow ochre pale
• plus ivory black and titanium white. 

Those of you who know my paintings will realise this is a far cry from the colours I normally use.

Ivory Black
I do find the ivory black very dull and flat, but this may be because of the brand of paint. It was a last minute decision to join in and I did not have any black in my arsenal of oil paints. So I had to make do with the only one I could find in the local shops and this was a Pebeo, I am ordering some Winsor and Newton paint to see if that makes a difference.

Zorn Palette colour chart
After starting the painting, I researched the Zorn palette and found some interesting colour charts see Here which give me hope that I may be able to get to grips with the palette.

Conclusion 
I am not sure I like the Zorn palette, the colours are limiting although I believe that additional accent colours will be used in the other sessions. I can see that it might improve my understanding of values versus colour. It is always good to jump out of one's comfort zone and learn something new.

I shall keep you posted on how I progress with using this palette.

Snow Scene - Limited palette study 3

 

Snow Scene Limited Palette study 3

10x15 cm, soft pastel on peach card

The third study using lavender, cadmium yellow and dark green (plus a pale blue white) on colorfix treated card.

For me, this is quite effective and it shows how the support colour can be used to good effect when using a limited palette. If I was to work this one up into a painting, I would stick with the same colour combinations including the shades either either side of the colours used here. That would give more variation  in the lights and darks, particularly the lavender. The use of less white would also give a more lively look.

Take a look at study 1 and study 2

Snow scene - limited palette study 2

Snow scene Limited Palette Study 2

4"x6" Pastel 

on Peach coloured card treated with Colorfix Primer

The second in the series, this time using a limited palette of dark green, cadmium red and pale lilac plus white.

You can see that by using complements (the red and green) a more 'moody' or subdued painting is achieved. Compare this to study 1 which essentially used a primary colour palette of red, blue and yellow

Snow scene Limited Palette Study 2

Click HERE to view the previous post

Snow scene - limited palette study 1

Snow scene Limited Palette Study 1

4"x6" Pastel 

on Peach coloured card treated with Colorfix Primer

 I have been reading a lot just lately about using a limited palette when painting and how it brings colour harmony to a painting. To work my way through this concept I have decided to paint several studies in pastel using only three colours plus white. Yes, you heard right. As you know I love colour so this is going to be especially hard for me, but I have made it slightly easier by  choosing snow scenes which are, in the most part, monochrome.
For this painting (and the next three), I coated a piece of peach coloured card with colourless Colorfix primer. This gives the card a 'tooth' that grips onto the pastel. I chose a burgundy, mid-dark blue and cadmium yellow plus a white that had a very pale blue shade.
I found I was having fun, which surprised me. The only snag was, that because I limited myself to only the three pastels, I had to work into the pastel a lot to get the different shades. Even so, I like the way this turned out, and I think this was successful. I gradually post the other studies over the next few days.