Born in Oklahoma on January 25, 1908, Zornes moved west to California during the Dust Bowl years. When he turned twenty, he hitchhiked across the United States, worked as a longshoreman on the docks in New York City, and then traveled to Europe. After his return to Los Angeles in the early 1930s, Zornes studied at the Otis Art Institute. His interest in watercolor eventually led him to seek out and study with Millard Sheets, who was an art professor at Scripps College in Claremont, California.