How many paints do you need in your collection? SIX !

I discovered model painting in the 90’s in my local Games Workshop store and enthusiastically purchased every colour pot and wash that I could afford.

Favourites were purchased multiple times and dried out or spilt pots were religiously replaced.

As new techniques and ranges developed, they were embraced with all available funds.

And now I have painting ranges spanning many generations and companies:

Then I got ‘Painter’s Block’ or ‘Colour Saturation’ – TOO MUCH CHOICE !

I was limited by having to decide which technique, which company’s range and what colour schemes I was hoping to achieve…

Model painting ground to a halt.

My only release was in terrain painting where spray cans, household paint leftovers and pound shop acrylics were my cheap and easy – anything goes – means to an end.

Recently I stumbled on a video by MarcoFrisoniNJM that I would highly recommend to every painter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U3xx9fuLaU&t=614s

The Zorn Limited Palette Technique is 100-150 years old and is probably well known by any art-school student and yet flew by the radar of more commercially driven hobbyists like myself.

Anders Zorn, the great Swedish Artist (1860-1920) devised a system of using just four colours: Yellow Ochre, Ivory Black, Vermilion (now usually Cadmium Red), and Titanium White.  This could make up a huge range of colours and tones and can be extended by adding a green and a blue.

I had to give this a go so I set myself 4 challenges:

1 – Make myself a Wet Palette – which is essential for this technique.

2 – Paint a Mythic Pantheon God using only Acrylic Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Titanium White & Black.

3 – Paint a Mythic Pantheon God using the basic four colours plus Green.

4 – Paint a Mythic Pantheon God using the basic four colours plus Green and Blue and go to town on it to see what I could achieve.

Challenge 1: Making a Wet Palette:

Using Marco’s suggestion I recycled a Ferrero Roche box as the palette.  Unfortunately I had one spare that had been donated to me so I couldn’t justify purchasing a new one. The sponge sheet and greaseproof paper were cheap items from Lidls & Tescos.  The whole thing actually didn’t cost me any extra as these bits were all in my cupboards anyway.

I did decide to use the Ferrero box upside down as this lets me clearly see my palette even when closed.

I have found that the seal on the box is so good that I can keep using a palette for a week or more without it drying out.  Occasionally I have topped it up with some more water.

Something else I have started doing is drying out the old palette sheet when I have finished the model and naming and dating it and putting it in a scrap book for future reference.

I chose Aphrodite because she has a lot of flesh showing and I really wanted to see what a non-artist like myself could achieve and because as a God figure she stands about 65mm high. This meant that I could play more, be less exact and see what was happening.

I downloaded a couple of Palette test sheets to get some ideas and then just put paint to palette and played.

I really had great fun with it and was truly amazed at how easy and intuitive it was.

This wasn’t intended to be a work of art – just a technique test piece – but I was very happy with the result.  Everything on the model (except the primer – Wraith Bone) including the base, was just using these four colours and blending and mixing them on the palette and model.

This was the final palette when I had finished:

Although you can mix some greens with the Limited Zorn Palette it is a bit difficult and limited. So I added Daler Rowney 335 Emerald Green (that I had inherited from my Mum’s old craftroom) to see how this would step it up.

I chose Artemis as she is another Pantheon God figure, has a bit of flesh showing, is more dynamic and stands about 70mm high.

I wasn’t as happy with the results on her.  I think the skin looks ‘dry’ and the colours and shades in her clothes were not blended together enough.  It was a good experience though and taught me more through my mistakes than getting things right.

This was the palette sheet afterwards.

My final challenge was to paint a third Greek God – this time Poseidon – and go a little bit crazy and have some fun.

I love this figure and I have been waiting years to get inspired to paint it.

The two things I hoped to achieve were to have him look as though he was striving into combat and secondly to have the source lighting from below or in front as if the ocean was lighting his path.

The extra palette colour added was Daler Rowney 123 Ultramarine Blue.

I also added an Antique Gold to the palette because I wanted the metal on him to be distinctive but aged.

He was great fun to paint and each stage just inspired me more.

I started off using toilet paper (from my huge store – no only joking) and PVA to make some waves texture on the base.

I put on some block colours and then did the metal work in black before painting on the antique gold.

Then I got silly…

I thought that Poseidon looked too meh just strolling across the water and not living up to his true potential so I decided to have him surfing on a sea monster!

I got out the air clay and got inspired by this:

Now I do know that Angler fish are actually quite small but hey he is Poseidon! And I’d have my point of source lighting.

I prised him off the base, molded a BIG mouth and a fish shape and pressed Poseidon into its back. I then stuck it back onto the base.

I used the same palette to paint the fish but then used some Army Painter Soft Tone to give it a wet look.

I then carved out the underside of the base with a Forstner drill bit to make a cavity and drilled a 2mm hole down though it’s head.

Using a piece of 1.5 mm brass tube, bent in a curve, I made its light stalk.  A 1mm 3V LED, some paint & some Green Stuff World UV resin finished it off.

And then I got silly…

Poseidon needed more speed!

When a boat rushes through the water you see a bow wave spread out so maybe the angler fish should make one too.

I gathered up some 1mm acrylic sheet, some upholstery stuffing, some gloss varnish and some inks and had a go at making a wave.

I cut out a basic shape from the acrylic sheet using some tin-snips and formed it into a wave shape with a hot-air gun and plenty of patience.

I then superglued some of the upholstery filler to the edges to represent spray.

I did use some contrast paints (Warp Lightning & Aethermatic Blue) and some blue & green inks (Rowney Kandahar Drawing Inks: 123 Ultramarine Blue & 349 Green) on the plastic as I wanted it to be mainly transparent or translucent.

I like how it came out but I still haven’t decided if I will glue it permanently to the model…

And then I went silly…

Having a focal point for the source lighting I progressively lightly dry-brushed various shades of yellows from the palette onto forward facing areas and edges. At the same time, I dry-brushed  more blues and bluey-green shades onto the back and shadows and yellowy-green shades onto the lit areas.

As I was doing this I realised that Poseidon had a really gladiatorial pose.  He reminded me of a figure from the Sparticus game and so I had to give him a net.

I made the net out of a plastic fire logs net bag and a rope from three strands of very thin steel wire woven together using a battery drill at low speed.

I then carefully threaded the rope around the net and superglued it in place before cutting off any excess netting with scissors.  The remaining rope I looped in Poseidon’s hand and had the tail whipping off behind him.

Using the wire rope to hold the shape I made it feel as if the wind was pulling the net backwards as he was about to cast it over an enemy.

The net was painted in shades as to where the source lighting would hit it and the lit edges of the net and rope were successively highlighted by dry-brushing on shades of yellow/white.

I also carved some slivers of plastic to give the angler fish a more menacing bite.

and then i stopped being silly !

I really had a lot of fun trying out this ‘new to me’ technique of model painting.

I found it really easy to play with, quite intuitive, and surprisingly relaxing.

I would highly recommend it to everyone, especially if you are burnt out or stuck in a groove.

Finding my own colours and being able to darken or lighten them without having to go to a different bottle was just a joy.

Non-metallics are easier to do but obviously metallics would have to be added for any scheme that needed them.

One thing I found was that as you are creating all your colours from a very small palette they all seem to tie in better together.

In conclusion then:

Would I throw out my vast collection of paints now that I had tried this technique? – OF COURSE NOT !

Will I still use other techniques and commercial ranges of paint? – oh yes.

Will I use this technique in future? – Certainly, it is fantastic and I can’t wait to try it with oils instead of acrylics.

Zorn Rules!

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has read the project, given it recommendations and made comments.

I really found this technique inspiring and relaxing and it has become another method that I will use often … but not always!

I hope many of you give it a try.  It is really cheap to get set up and although I have only managed to touch on its potential – oils are supposed to be exquisite with this method on figurines and models – the results were both surprising and pleasing.

It was wonderful to receive a Golden Button and I hope to give back more to the community in the future.

Thank you,

Chris B