*Contrast of extension requires these proportions of the complementary colors to achieve a harmonious or balanced amount of color:ģ:1 for yellow to violet… 2:1 for blue to orange… 1:1 for red to green* Itten and other color theorists list those as shown in the following illustration. Research has shown that different combinations of complementary colors become balanced when used in different proportions. This has to do with how you use the color-particularly how much of each color. The grays in the corners of each pattern are the same neutral gray.Ĭontrast of extension. There are four ways to dilute a color:Īdding gray to a pure color demonstrates one way color can be desaturated. This is the degree of purity of the color, so it is possible to contrast a pure, intense color with a dull, diluted color. The narrow red bars advance toward the viewer, while the cooler blue recedes.Ĭontrast of saturation. Remember, though, that color juxtaposition affects warmth and cold perception: a red-violet next to a blue will look warm, but the same red-violet next to red will look cool.Ī red-violet juxtaposed to blue looks warm (left), while the same red-violet juxtaposed to red looks cool.Īlso, there is a noticeable spacial effect that happens with red and blue-when side by side, red advances toward the viewer, while blue recedes. Research has shown that people will perceive rooms to be cold at different temperatures, depending on what color the room is painted (a blue-green room is thought cold at 59 degrees, while a red-orange room isn’t thought cold until it is 54 degrees). Red/orange is warm, while blue/green is cool. This type of contrast is also called value, particularly in the world of Photoshop.Ĭold and warm contrast. Black and white are obvious examples here, but the same thing can be applied to other colors. Contrast of hue is found in the folk art of people everywhere.Ĭombining colors that are located at noncontiguous and evenly spaced locations around the color wheel is a good way to make sure they will look pleasing to the eye. If you need more than two colors, you can use three colors that form a triangle or four that form a square around the color wheel. Here is where complementary colors have the greatest contrast. There are several types of contrast to work with:Ĭontrast of hue. Often, the best combinations are based on some type of contrast, which allows the viewer to differentiate the colors easily. In The Elements of Color, Johannes Itten explains the afterimage property of this type of contrast, already described above, by saying, “The eye requires any given color to be balanced by its complementary, and will spontaneously generate the latter if it is not present.” Complementary colors also can make the viewer see color vibration-literally, the two colors seem to vibrate when near each other.īasically, we are all trying to come up with good color combinations when we design something for print or Web. If you stare at the small dot in the center of the flag for 30 seconds or more, then look away at a white surface, you should see an after image of the United State flag in its usual (complementary) colors.Ĭomplementary contrast. And most importantly, when you juxtapose two complementary colors, you get an afterimage effect as in the famous Jasper Johns American flag painting. Basically, it means that if you mix two colors from the opposite side of the color wheel, you will get a neutral gray. In this example, the same yellow square looks darker and warmer with a white background, and more brilliant and colder with a black background.Ĭolor complementarity is more complex.
![light color wheel light color wheel](https://image1.slideserve.com/2762740/the-color-wheel-l.jpg)
![light color wheel light color wheel](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f2/a2/0f/f2a20ff46551d0b9a5eced557a2968ea.jpg)
Probably more important to understand in the “real world,” though, are color effect and color complementarity.Ĭolor effect is how a color is perceived, as affected by its environment-what it is next to. (I always found that hard to keep straight because it is so “inside out” from how it seems intuitively.) But knowing that visible light is made up of red, green and blue (RGB) is an important base to understanding color in general. So a green plant absorbs all of the red and blue light waves, and reflects all of the green light. If you had the same high school science class I did, you learned that light waves are not actually colored-the objects we see appear to our brains to be the color that they reflect, and not the color they absorb.