Color Tone and Value

COLOR TONE AND VALUE For a time Ignatov paired down his palette to include just four pigments: titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium red and ivory black.

"This palette is associated with the one Anders Zorn used in some of his works," says Ignatov, who took up the same handful of colors as the Swedish master to perfect his ability to evaluate color and color harmony. "It was a great way to push myself to mix as many color nuances with only four colors. You only had four options to dip your brush in, so it really gets you to decide precisely about color temperature."

The four colors used in the Zorn palette create a muted color spectrum, as it incorporates the three primary colors, with black standing in for blue. The closest a painter can come to blue is gray mixed with black and white; the greenest green is a mixture of black and yellow ochre; purple is a mixture of black, white, and red. The palette limits the saturation and intensity of several colors, yet the subdued tones often help artists recognize complimentary colors and strengthen their understanding of the structure and formulations of the color wheel.

"When you place orange next to the gray, the gray looks blue in comparison because orange is its compliment," says Ignatov. "The muted purple looks more saturated next to yellow; the muted green looks greener next to red. That's how the palette works-you must be aware of complimentary colors to get the most out of the few colors you are using." It isn't an easy exercise, to be sure. One of the biggest hurdles with using this particular quartet of colors is their lack of transparency. "These color mixtures are very opaque and it's easy to get mud," the artist says. Ignatov combated this susceptibility by keeping his brushes scrupulously clean and separating each color mixture on his palette.

There's also a certain atmospheric quality created from the use of a muted palette. Ignatov considered this as an asset because it allowed him to imbue mood through color, or lack thereof.

Ignatov spent a year working with a limited palette. Eventually he switched to a fuller palette of 14 colors because he wanted to accurately match, not mute, the intensity of color any subject matter or chosen composition might present him. However, the time spent working solely with the Zorn palette gave Ignatov a deeper, more experienced understanding of how to mix colors and, therefore, how color develops.

Understanding value is a fundamental in both painting and drawing. If you are interested in sharpening your skills with a limited painting palette, one of the best ways to start is by working through value studies in pencil or charcoal. You can gain an appreciation of how to use gradation to suggest mass and form, which is also essential with a limited painting palette.

LEARNING THE MAGIC OF ANDERS ZORN LIMITED PALETTE

The Zorn palette is named after Anders Leonard Zorn (February 18, 1860 – August 22, 1920), who was an internationally successful artist from Sweden. Best known for his portraits, domestic scenes and nudes in outdoor settings, he, like John Singer Sargent and Joaquín Sorolla, are greatly admired by many realist artists today for his lively and skillful brushwork.

Zorn is also known for using a palette limited to only four colors. Although there is some disagreement over the exact colors on his palette, it is generally believed that Zorn reduced his palette to the rather earthy colors of Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Medium, Ivory Black plus White. Some lists add Vermillion, Viridian, and/or Cerulean Blue. Wherever the truth lies, the palette is far more limited in color range than most artists use.

Why Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Medium, Ivory Black? They are an earthy version of the basic primary pigment colors Yellow, Red and Blue. Yellow Ochre is earthy but still mixes with red and black to create some very pleasant warm orange hues and cool green hues respectively.

Cadmium Red is rich and warm. Ivory Black is cool and acts like very deep blue.

Curious about just what happens when you work with such a palette, I tried a little exercise borrowed from Alla Prima II Everything I Know about Painting–And More by Richard Schmid. I

created a color chart of the most basic Zorn palette: Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Medium, Ivory Black and Titanium White. I had done this exercise with my full palette before and learned more about color mixing than any other exercise I know of. It beats blind experimentation hands down. (NOTE: This exercise is a variation on Schmid’s color chart exercise. You should buy his book, Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting and follow his instructions if you are going to make a chart for your full palette.)

This exercise involves creating a color chart where the basic Zorn Palette of Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red, and Ivory Black are systematically mixed from full saturated hue to a barely tinted white. The resulting chart shows the remarkable range of colors you can get from this basic palette. I also discovered the beautifully harmonious color combination that is created by limiting your color choices.

STEP 1: Draw the Grid On a 16 x 12 canvas panel, I drew a grid of 1-inch squares, 12 across and 10 down.

STEP 2: Mask the Grid Using house painter’s masking cut in 1/4 inch wide strips to mask the edges of 10 rows and 12 columns of squares where mixed colors will go.

STEP 3: Mixing and Painting the Grid – Here is where the fun happens.

Using a small palette knife (you can use a brush) I painted in the grid.

Top Row: Colors straight out of the tube, either pure or mixed with another pigment – but no white.

Next Four Rows: Mix white with the color in the top each column to create a progressively lighter value of that color.

The percentage is an approximate value. The point is to show a gradual but clear difference from the pure color to a light tint of that same color.

Bottom Five Rows: I added a trace of the color that was not mixed in upper half of the chart. So where Yellow Ochre and Red are mixed I added to trace of Ivory Black – enough to see a shift in saturation without overwhelming the original mixture. The idea here was to see what kind of color shift from warm to cool happens when a trace of the third color is added.

TIP 1: Mix One Column at a Time.

Mix a large puddle of pure colors first and divide it into five smaller puddles. Then add white to each puddle to create the gradually lighter mixes. After those colors are painted on the grid, add the third, trace color, to each mixture to use in the lower half of the column.

TIP 2: Keep Your Palette Clean Clean your palette after you finish each column to keep your colors clean.