Color Theory 2

The relationships between the colors on the color wheel are what really brings out the understanding of why some things will look good to our eyes and some are just irritating. The good relationships between different colors are immediately noticeable even if it's subconsciously. The basic relationships are usually called color harmonies.

Here are some example of color harmonies:

Complementary: These are colors across from each other on the color wheel. For example red and green or blue and yellow. These colors are very contrasting. They stand out quite a bit and accent each other well. (For added effect adding shades of the complementary colors intensifies the depth)


Color wheel courtesy of http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm

Analogous: These colors are the three shades that are next to each other on the color wheel. These are similar colors and appear comfortable to our eyes.


Color wheel courtesy of http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm

Triadic: These colors are evenly spaced on the color wheel. The three colors would form a triangle on the color wheel. On a twelve color wheel (most basic common one) then it's every 4th color.


Color wheel courtesy of http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-theory-intro.htm

The harmonies can help accent a certain point in an art piece or give theme to the whole piece. Different harmonies create a different atmosphere for the art and will create different reactions from the viewer. I'll explain more about color and its relationship to us in color theory 3.

P.S.

While researching about color theory I came across a really cool color wheel machine coordinator. You can set different themes such as complementary, analogous, etc...and set to whatever colors you want. It's very easy and fun too use.
Try it out!
http://colorschemedesigner.com/