Elizabeth Zanzinger Palette

Elizabeth writes about Rublev Colours Artist Oils:

“I immediately noticed a difference in my paintings when I began using the Rublev Colours Artist Oils. The pigments are rich and powerful, even the more subtle ones. The paints have a full-bodied, palpable quality that completely out-competes your typical art store variety. There are no fillers, so each tube lasts a long time. As a cost-conscious working artist, this is so important for me. Since you are using the oil paint in its purest form, it can handle a variety of mediums to manipulate its performance in a very immediate way. I use these colors for most of my painting applications—both for alla prima and long-term work.”

“My palette is fairly extended based on how I work in alla prima. Each color serves a different and important purpose. Because I paint directly, I prefer to have a variety of colors available to me so I can work quickly and vibrantly. Below are some notes on why I have chosen each color featured on my palette.”

“‘Direct painting’ refers to the practice of expertly mixing up an appropriate color based on immediate observation, rather than building up a painting with multiple thin glazes.”

Basic Palette Colors

Colors included in the Elizabeth Zanzinger Basic Palette
Color Swatch	Item Code	Series	Color Name
	820-104	2	Rublev Colours Ultramarine Blue (Green Shade) is an intense deep blue with redish-undertones when mixed with white from an inorganic pigment of sodium aluminum silicate composition. It is a transparent, fine grained color with high tinting strength. Elizabeth notes: “This blue bridges the divide between warms and cools and mixes well into a variety of lights and darks.”
	820-208	1	Rublev Colours Antica Green Earth is a transparent olive green with warm undertones, smooth grained and low tinting strength. Our Antica green earth is from deposits in Prun in the province of Verona, Italy. Elizabeth notes: “Nicosia is a beautiful hue for greens found in fleshtones. Both subtle and vibrant.”
	820-303	1	Rublev Colours Blue Ridge Yellow Ocher is a semi-transparent golden yellow, very fine grained and has a buttery consistency. Our yellow ocher is a single pigment color made of natural earths from ocher deposits in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia. Elizabeth notes: “This is my favorite color, hands down. It is a brilliant earth ochre and a reliable workhorse for figure painting.”
	820-310	4	Rublev Colours Chrome Yellow Primrose is lead chromate/lead sulfate, obtained synthetically as a yellow crystalline powder by precipitation from a solution of a lead salt. Chrome yellow primrose has good hiding power with bright yellow hue and average tinting strength. Elizabeth notes: “I use brighter colors to achieve the visual brilliance found in nature. This is a solid replacement for a cadmium yellow.”
	820-403	1	Rublev Colours Orange Molybdate is a brilliant orange pigment made by coprecipitation of lead chromate and lead molybdate in the presence of lead sulfate. It has been widely used in coatings for many decades during the 20th century because of its bright color and high hiding power. Orange molybdate had a brief history of use by artists for several decades in the last century. Elizabeth notes: “Orange Molybdate works great as a cadmium red replacement. I also mix this with my Chrome Yellow to achieve a range of vibrant warm fleshtones.”
	820-531	4	Rublev Colours Tuscan Red is dark red with bright cherry tints when mixed with white or applied thinly. It consists of equal parts by weight of hematite (red iron oxide) and terra alba (calcium sulfate) and a small amount of alizarin. Elizabeth notes: “I hesitate to use colors like Alizarin mixed into my paint directly. Tuscan Red has been a perfect solution. It satisfies my need for a cool red, but should adequately preserve results over the long-term.”
	820-522	4	Rublev Colours Transparent Red Iron Oxide is dark brown-red with bright cherry tints when mixed with white or applied thinly. The nanoparticle size of the synthetic red iron oxide pigments provides transparent colors and bright tints in mixture with white.
	820-610	1	Rublev Colours French Raw Umber is a semi-transparent, deep greenish brown with good tint strength, fine grained and, like most Rublev Colours Artist Oils, brushes "long" in the direction of the brush stroke. Elizabeth notes: “This is a greenish brown that I use for underpaintings and as a cool neutralizer.”
	820-616	2	Rublev Colours Cyprus Burnt Umber is an opaque brown with high tinting strength, medium grained and, like most Rublev Colours Artist Oils, brushes "long" in the direction of the brush stroke. Elizabeth notes: “I use this umber as a fleshy brown good for darks and as a warm neutralizer.”
	820-803	5	Rublev Colours Lead White #2 in filtered, pale walnut oil is an opaque white that is soft and slightly ropy. Lead White #2 is a brighter white than our first flake white (also known as Cremnitz white) because of the paler walnut oil. Elizabeth notes: “This lead white is a rockstar. It has a robust painterly consistency that works well as a semi-opaque white. It is strong enough for alla prima, but also sensitive enough for indirect painting or crisp form modeling.”
	820-920	3	Rublev Colours Blue Black is an opaque cool black with good tinting strength. Elizabeth notes: “A cold counterpart to most blacks.”

Elizabeth Zanzinger Extended Palette

Optional Colors in the Elizabeth Zanzinger Extended Palette
Color Swatch	Item Code	Series	Color Name
	820-111	2	Rublev Colours Prussian Blue (Milori Blue) is a black-blue of ferric ferrocyanide with high tinting strength, fine grained and a 'short' buttery paint. Elizabeth notes: “So rich and dark, I never thought I would renew my admiration for Prussian Blue, but it has made its way back on my palette in a big way.”
	820-205	2	Rublev Colours Nicosia Green Earth is a transparent deep green with yellow undertone, medium grained and low tinting strength. Our Nicosia green earth is from glauconite deposits in Cyprus. Elizabeth notes: “Nicosia is a beautiful hue for greens found in fleshtones. Both subtle and vibrant.”
	820-226	5	Rublev Colours Cinnabar Green is a name that denoted a composite pigment of chrome yellow and Prussian blue, providing a wide range of hues from dark to light tones. We found 19th century formulas for cinnabar green composed of chrome yellow primrose and Prussian blue forming the basis of our Cinnabar Green. Elizabeth notes: “This is a gorgeous glowing color and a must-have for figure painting.”
	820-235	3	Rublev Colours Chromium Oxide Green is a high quality, clean, medium-shade, very stable green color with excellent lightfastness, an opaque green features high tinting strength and good drying properties.
	820-371	4	Rublev Colours Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide is dark brown-yellow with bright flesh orange tints when mixed with white or applied thinly. The nanoparticle size of the synthetic yellow iron oxide pigments provides transparent colors and bright tints in mixture with white.
	820-362	6	Rublev Colours Cadmium Yellow Light is a highly saturated, very light yellow with excellent lightfastness. This is opaque yellow features very high tinting strength and moderate drying properties.
	820-411	6	Rublev Colours Cadmium Orange is a highly saturated, 'true' orange with excellent lightfastness. This is opaque orange features very high tinting strength and moderate drying properties.
	820-513	4	Rublev Colours Transparent Mummy is a semi-transparent red with orange undertones, fine grained, low tinting strength and brushes "long" in the direction of the brush stroke. Elizabeth notes: “This color is my version of Burnt Sienna. I use this gentle earthy paint as a transparent modifier of other colors, including my darks.”
	820-508	10	Rublev Colours Vermilion is an intense red found in historical painting since antiquity. It is opaque, has good tinting strength and smooth grained. Elizabeth notes: “There’s a reason this color is so sought after. It’s absolutely bloody and beautiful.”
	820-608	10	Rublev Colours French Burnt Sienna is a semi-transparent reddish-brown, good tinting strength, fine-grained and brushes "long" in the direction of the brush stroke. Our French sienna is from deposits in the Luberon Mountains.

Note: Colors swatches are shown in mass tone, straight from the tube, on the left, and mixed with an equal amount of white on the right. All pictures of color swatches in this web site are only approximations of the actual color of the oil paint. We taken every care to match the color in these pictures on calibrated color monitors to the actual color. However, because of the wide variance in color monitors the results you get may vary.

Mediums

Mediums Used by Elizabeth Zanzinger
Basics for Workshops
	Item Code	Name
	530-340	Rublev Colours Underpainting Transparent Base is a fast-drying, alkyd paste medium, similar to Velázquez Medium in handling properties, but much faster drying. This alkyd paste medium consists of finely ground calcite (ground calcium carbonate) and wollastonite in alkyd with mineral spirits. Elizabeth notes: “This is the base layer medium, from which I create a mixture for a quick-drying layer of paint.”
	530-430	Rublev Colours Oleogel is a thixotropic painting medium made with linseed oil and pyrogenic silica that adds transparency and thixotropic body to oil, resin-oil or alkyd paint. Elizabeth notes: “Usage is similar to linseed oil in the upper layers of finished work. It helps the paint flow and increases transparency.”
Recommended Mediums
	530-310	Rublev Colours Venetian Medium is based on research that 16th century Venetian painters added powdered glass to their paint. Contains leaded crystal glass powder, pale bodied linseed oil and turpentine, with small amounts of wax and lead. Elizabeth notes: “This medium is used after the Underpainting Transparent Base layer if I want the paint to “tack up" faster.”
	530-360	Rublev Colours Velazquez Medium is a paste of finely ground calcite in bodied linseed oil. Use to extend paint and form impastos while making paint longer. Makes colors slightly transparent allowing greater control over tints without whites. Elizabeth notes: “Adds significant body to the paint, often mixed with Oleogel to modify the properties of the medium.”
	510-40OEX	Rublev Colours Epoxide Oil is a dicyclopentadiene copolymer linseed oil. It is a reinforced oil that is excellent in varnishes and paints. Use it in place of natural and synthetic resinous mediums to speed up drying and improve film forming. Elizabeth notes: “A great drying oil somewhere in between refined linseed oil and heavy bodied oil, or stand oil.”