Grade 10 Art - Day 54 "Colour Schemes"

Today we are continuing our study of colour in the printing unit and I wanted to review three terms with you.  They are all different colour schemes.  A colour scheme is a way of combining the colours that we see on the colour wheel.  The three terms we are learning today are: complementary colour scheme, analogous colour scheme, and split-complementary colour scheme.

Complementary Colour Scheme
When you use two colours from the exact opposite side of the colour wheel, you have created a complementary colour scheme.  Red and green, blue and orange, violet and yellow, etc.  A strong contrast is present, but the hues complement each other.  Here are some examples in art, fashion, and design:

Night Cafe by Van Gogh

Analogous Colour Scheme

In an analogous colour scheme, the artist picks colours that are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel.  Using violet-red, red, and red-orange would be a great example of an analogous theme. Here are some examples:

phil's_lion, by Melelel:

Split-Complementary Colour Scheme:

As the graphic shows, a split-complementary scheme involves selecting a colour, then choosing the colours on the left and right of its complementary colour on the opposite side of the wheel.  Here is an example of this scheme in practice, from http://seraphicstudio.weebly.com/3/category/colours/1.html: