paintings · portraits

Long Neck, Zorn Palette

“Long Neck – Zorn Palette” 8×10 inches, oil on canvas panel

I’ve mentioned the Zorn Palette before. It’s a limited painting palette that consists of four colors: White, Black, Vermillion (Orangey-red) and Yellow Ochre. It’s incredible how many colors can be achieved with just these four paints! The background on this painting “looks” blue, but it’s just black and white mixed together. (Black is often a bit cool, which will create the illusion of a muted blue.) The purple in the shadow side of her face is a mixture of white, black, and vermillion. Mixing colors was so fun for this painting!

Here’s another recent example of the Zorn palette in action. (Scroll down the page to see the second painting.)

Again I used a stock photo for reference. Thanks go to shewarmachine.

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