What is the Zorn palette, and is it enough for portraits?
Short answer: The Zorn palette is a limited palette of yellow ochre, a red such as cadmium red or vermilion, ivory black and white, named after the Swedish painter Anders Zorn. It is enough for a great many portraits because skin sits in a narrow, low chroma range, though it struggles with strong blues and greens.
Why four colors can be enough
Skin, hair and most interior backgrounds live in warm, low chroma territory. Ochre, red, black and white cover that range surprisingly well. Ivory black mixed with white reads as a cool blue grey next to warm flesh, which gives the eye the sense of a cool note without a true blue.
What it teaches
A limited palette forces you to learn value and temperature instead of reaching for a new tube. You stop asking which color and start asking how light and how warm. That habit transfers to any palette you use later.
Where it falls short
Saturated blue clothing, clear skies, vivid greens and strong violets are out of reach. For those, add ultramarine blue. The palette taught at Clint Atelier is essentially Zorn plus burnt sienna and ultramarine: small enough to know deeply, wide enough for most portrait problems.
How to practice
Paint three small head studies with only the four Zorn colors. Then paint the same head adding ultramarine and compare. You will see exactly what the extra pigment buys you and what it does not.