Before revising

I’ve been experimenting using the Zorn palette behind the scenes for the past several weeks. Even though I love pastel pink and blue, dare I say, I was getting a little bored with them? I thought it was time to mix up my paint palette slightly, and bring in some Fall colors. I used to use a palette similar to Zorn’s a few years ago, but it’s been a while. 

If you’re not familar with Zorn’s palette, it’s a limited palette, which consists of only white, black, ochre, and vermillion. I think it works best if you’re painting portraits, although some landscape painters have used it with great success.

The first thing I realized when I committed to using the palette is I’d have to give up my pale blue that I love so much. Lucky for me, I can still mix my favorite color (pink) using Zorn’s palette. I might not attempt to use it otherwise. 😉

However, to move away from my comfort zone for a minute, I decided to forego mixing too much pink, and instead I went with vermillion being the most prominent color. I was going for that deep red orangey autumn look book style. I heard it’s going to be the color of the season because women want to stand out and be as colorful as the leaves this year..or maybe blend in with them? lol 

I had this old acrylic portrait painting that I wanted to revise, which was perfect. Her face was extremely pink, as you can see in the first pic, without much variation, depth or layering. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I painted her. Obviously, I had PINK on my brain because normally I prefer to paint in layers, either using a glazing medium or watercolors on top of the acrylics. I like to see the layers showing through, complimenting each other. I didn’t do that on this painting, and it was too flat, plain, and PINK, even for me. Also, her eyes were too big, and her face was weirdly shaped. lol 

I started off revising it in acrylics, but it was so hot outside that day..like 109F. My ac was doing the best it could under the circumstances, but my studio was pretty warm. The paint was drying on my glass palette as fast as I could mix it.

Quick reminder to myself..buy some Golden open acrylics – red cad, ochre, white and black, if you’re going to use Zorn’s palette when it’s that hot again.

Since I don’t have ochre or red cad in open acrylics, I switched over to oils, and quickly solved that little heat problem. 

Turned out, I didn’t mind at all. Ahh..how I love and have missed oils. 

These are the colors I mixed using Zorn’s palette. 
Looking at it now, I really dig that greenish gray. 
I wonder how I mixed that? lol
Oooh, I know..black, ochre and a little white.
Yeah. 

And this is the outcome so far..

oil portrait painting

Turns out, I had vermillion in acrylics, but not in oils. Or not the brand I wanted to use, anyway, so I had to mix up what looked close to vermillion to me. It might be on the orangey side, but that’s okay. Autumn look book is what I was styling her for, remember? She is going to be the cover girl. lol This painting is still a work in progress. I’ve been letting it dry a bit before continuing. 

Tomorrow 30 days of creativity starts over on FB. You still have plenty of time to join in. Paint today, take a photo of what you accomplished, and post tomorrow. It doesn’t need to be a finished piece. I hope to see you there. 

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