Color Schemes

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	A color scheme is simply a color plan. Color schemes use the position of colors on the color for their descriptions. For example, a complementary color scheme would be any color scheme that used two colors opposite each other on the color wheel and all of their values¹ and intensities².
Monochromatic Color Scheme: mono- means “one” and chroma- means “color”. When you use a monochromatic color scheme in your art, you use one hue³ plus black, white, and gray.
Complementary Color Scheme: a complementary color scheme uses a pair of colors that are exactly opposite each other on the color scheme plus black, white, and gray. In other words, complementary hues and various values and intensities of them.
Analogous Color Scheme: analogy comes from a Greek word meaning similar. An analogous color scheme is made up of 4 or 5 colors side-by-side on the color wheel plus various values and intensities of those hues.
Warm or Cool Color Scheme: These are specific types of analogous color schemes. A warm color scheme would have the colors considered to be warm (reds, red-orange, oranges, yellow-orange, yellows, yellow-green) plus various values and intensities of those colors. A cool color scheme would be cool colors (greens, blue-green, blues, blue-violet, violet) plus different values and intensities of those hues.
¹ Value – in art, value refers to the lights and darks in an artwork. For example, pink is lighter in value than burgundy. Also, yellow is lighter in value than purple. ² Intensity – intensity refers to how bright or dull a color is. The brightest a color can be is its hue on the color wheel. Colors can be made more dull by adding a dab of the color’s complement (opposite color) or by adding gray. ³ Hue – the term, hue refers to the name of the color on the color wheel. Red is a hue; pink is a lighter value of red, but still considered to be the hue, red.

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Last Updated on
Wednesday, July 04, 2007