Color Theory 101: How to Create Color Harmony

{Image via from Artisphere Online}

How to Create Color Harmony:

We use color harmony in everyday life without thinking about it. You use it when selecting clothes, planning a garden and putting on make-up. Any choice with color involves harmony. Color harmonies are an arrangement of color that have a pleasing visual effect, such as the color wheel. It is aesthetics at a basic level.

{Color combinations from the Inspired Bride.}

Artists and designers do it all the time. Artists choose color combinations that control eye movement in their compositions. Web designers do it to make colors work together in a web page or graphic. People in advertising know about color harmony. They use it to convince you to buy things and it works. They know that an ad created in striking color harmonies will not only catch your attention, but provoke you to read it. That’s one foot in the door, for them and you have no idea how many times you’ve fallen for it.

How to achieve harmony:

Choose a base color. Everything else is built around the relationship to the base color and where they fall on the color wheel. Hues can also be included (tints –white and shades-blacks).

The following three schemes are common methods to achieve harmony:

Monochromatic scheme: Base color plus varying shades of tints, shades and tones. For example, add ASCP Old White in different ratios to Aubusson would be a monochromatic scheme in varying tints. Below is an example by Annie Sloan.

{Pure Aubusson}

{Aubusson with different ratios of Old White. Photo from Annie Sloan.}

Contrasting scheme: Those colors across from each other on a color wheel. (Colors such as red and green.) When choosing complementary colors, fully saturated colors will offer the highest level of contrast. Choosing from tints or shades within the hue family reduces the overall contrast of the composition. A striking combination in ASCP would be Barcelona Orange and Napoelonic Blue.

{Good use of blue and orange contrast. Image via Martha Stewart.}

Analogous Scheme: Those colors located adjacent to each other on a color wheel.

ASCP Provence and Old Violet are analogous because blue and purple are next to each other on the color wheel. I have used this combination with Provence on a piece and Old Violet in the drawers. Beautiful.

{Provence exterior with Old Violet interior from The Back Porch Mercantile. For sale at Ironic.}

Let’s review….

· Primary colors, Red, Blue, and Yellow.

· Secondary colors, made by mixing Primary colors.

· Tertiary colors, made by mixing a Primary and a Secondary color.

· Complimentary colors, opposite each other which create a vibrant effect when
used together.

· Harmonizing colors, lie between Primary color, and seem to belong together.

Now it's time to go create something beautiful! Happy Painting!

Photo credits: Annie Sloan and Jolie Decor