Working with a Zorn or Limited Palette

Lately, when I don't have the mindset to work on a full painting and I just want to relax on the couch, I've been plopping down some colors in my cigar box pochade box using the Zorn palette and doing some oil sketches on 5x7" panels.  I just put the cigar box on my lap and do quick sketches using photo references I've printed out or directly from my laptop screen.  It's comfortable and most importantly I'm painting!  Instead of watching mindless television (well, I still have it on) I'm mixing paints and painting.

I'm doing small oil sketches and mini portraits (5x7 panels) and using a limited palette of ivory black, cadmium red medium, yellow ochre and titanium white and I'm truly amazed at the vast amount of colors you can obtain with these four colors.  If you add in ultramarine blue you have a pretty extensive range of hues to work with.

If I'm just pushing colors around and experimenting, I will paint on recycled boxes that I coat with acrylic gesso and when I'm done I'll just toss them out.  Every once in awhile I create something that I love and so I trim the piece and save them although I have to admit that I do get mad at myself when I create something great and now it's on a piece of cardboard.  So learn from my mistakes and don't get caught up in your paintings if you use these temporary recycled cardboard canvases.

As for the cigar box pochade box, I bought a used cigar box from a cigar store at a local mall for $5 and it measures about 9" x 12".  There are larger ones but that was the largest one they had available that day.  The best thing to do is call a cigar store and ask them if they give away the old cigar boxes.  They may not give them away but just sell the old boxes.  If they do give them away or sell them, ask them to hold one for you or ask what days they get new shipments so you can stop in and pick one up.

Use of Lines to Sketch

When sketching out your painting onto your surface of choice, it is a good idea to sketch using straight lines only- curves lines make sketching too difficult. It's easier for the brain to comprehend straight lines than it is to understand curves.

You can break down curves into multiple straight lines for the most part. You need to capture your images big shapes and overall outlines. When sketching you should be constantly be comparing how each line relates to others in the composition. You need to see how each of the lines intersect or would intersect with each other if the line continued on in each direction.

You should look at you subject as a series of shapes not as name-able parts of an object. Look for angles, shapes such as squares, triangles, rectangles, etc.