The Art of Choosing: Split-Complementary Color Schemes (2024)

FAQs

The Art of Choosing: Split-Complementary Color Schemes? ›

Split Complementary Color Scheme

Last but not least, a split-complementary color scheme uses two colors across the color wheel, with those two colors lying on either side of the complementary color. For example, violet's complimentary color is yellow, but its split-complementary colors are yellow-green and yellow-orange.

Like complementary colour palettes, split-complementary colour schemes are still visually striking due to the strong contrast in colours but, split complements are slightly closer to the base colour on the wheel. And they have less visual tension and more interest and variety.

Complementary colors enhance each other's intensity when placed right next to each other, which is why they're often used to create bold, high-contrast images that pop.

Polychromatic - This is a palette with where five or more colours. This colour harmony works when colours with the same tint, tone or shade are used and can be taken from anywhere on the colour wheel. The Polychromatic colour harmony reflects medium levels of contrast.

Art Concept: Analogous Colors.

Artists often use colors that are analogous. “Analogous” means near. Analogous colors mean two or more colors that are side by side on the color wheel and often contain the same primary color (green, yellow, orange).

Red, blue, and yellow are three primary colors that create a triadic color scheme. Triadic colors create a vibrant color palette by separating each color, regardless of the specific hues. For example, the following are perfect triadic color combinations: Red, Yellow, and Blue. Green, Orange, Purple.

So a split complementary scheme can have red as a base color, then a yellow-green and blue-green as accents. This scheme can be less aggressive than a standard complementary setup but also has a chance of feeling chaotic or cluttered.

The seven major color schemes are monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, triadic, square, and rectangle (or tetradic).

Colors opposite each other on the color wheel are complementary colors. The vibrant look of a complementary harmony is ideal for making something stand out or drawing attention to your focal point, but be careful using complementary colors in large doses – they can easily appear overwhelming to the eye.

Did Van Gogh use complementary colors? ›

Vincent largely used the complementary colours red and green for his Head of a Woman. Rather than laying them down side by side, however, pure and more or less unblended, he mixed them, with the result that the colour contrast is not as powerful.

In this example, Van Gogh has used complementary colours to his advantage and often went out of his way to create contrast and tension in his paintings.

Split complementary colors are pretty much what the name implies. You take two colors opposite each other on the color wheel, like red and green, and split one of them into its two adjacent colors on the wheel. Take for example red-orange and blue-green.

Examples of Complementary Color Combinations

blue and orange. red-orange and blue-green. yellow-orange and blue-violet. yellow-green and red-violet.

In simple terms, chromatic color schemes include all shades except for black, white and their mixture, grey. Their properties include: colors in which only one particular wavelength of light dominates. colors that have even the slightest saturation or vividness.

Spectral schemes use a gradient along the spectral colors or along the full range of hues, generally with no variation in value. Spectral schemes can be difficult to interpret with most data because hues do not naturally look like "more" or "less" than other hues.

Tetradic Colors

A tetrad is four colors, that is, two pairs of complementary combinations. Tetradic color scheme examples are green with red and blue with yellow. The four selected shades connected should form a rectangle within the color spectrum (not necessarily a square).

Triadic colours are three equally spaced colours around the colour wheel. This forms a triangle. The colour wheel comprises of primary and secondary colours. Artists use the wheel as a colour reference. 'Tri' derives from the word three, a Latin or Greek origin.

The color term 'chroma' is used to indicate a color's saturation or perceived strength level, called the chromatic intensity. The higher the saturation, the higher the intensity or purity of the color. Pure hues have the highest chromatic intensity because they only contain color pigments (no neutral colors).

The combination of primary and secondary colors is known as tertiary or intermediate colors, due to their compound nature. Blue-green, blue-violet, red-orange, red-violet, yellow-orange, and yellow-green are color combinations you can make from color mixing.

What is an achromatic color scheme? ›

An achromatic color scheme is a collection of neutral colors that derive from black and white; more specifically the colors black, white, and gray. Chromatic color schemes, by contrast, include any colors that are not achromatic or any colors that have some degree of saturation or dominant hue.

Neutral colors are muted shades that appear to lack color but often have underlying hues that change with different lighting. Examples of neutral colors include beige, taupe, gray, cream, brown, black, and white. While neutral colors are not on the color wheel, they complement primary and secondary colors.

By adding black to the color, the value is made darker, resulting in what is referred to as a “shade.” When white is added to a color, the result is a lighter value, which is referred to as a “tint.”

Examples of complementary color combinations are: Red and green; yellow and purple; orange and blue; green and magenta. Complementary color combos tend to be bold, which is why sports teams often use this formula for their colors.

Complementary colors are pairs of colors which, when combined or mixed, cancel each other out (lose hue) by producing a grayscale color like white or black. When placed next to each other, they create the strongest contrast for those two colors. Complementary colors may also be called "opposite colors".

The complementary color to pink is lime green, a green that's close to yellow. These two hues are closely tied together in nature, so it gives a natural feeling. Pink's split complementary is lime green and yellow. With these two shades, your design should then be associated with liveliness and high-energy.