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.