1. Color schemes: specific arrangements of colors, based on their placement on the color wheel

2. Color Schemes
The Color wheel is a helpful tool for observing harmonious relationships between colors called Color Schemes. Choosing colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel adds cohesion to your compositions.

3. Monochromatic color scheme
One hue, and tints and shades of that hue
Monochromatic color schemes are very unified but can be very simple.

4. Monochromatic color scheme
Uses only one color and a variety of tints (white added) and shades (black or grey added) of that color

5. Picasso, Blue period

6. Analogous color scheme
Colors that lie next to one another on the color wheel. Unified like the monochrome color scheme, but with slightly more variety.

7. Red-orange, Orange, Yellow-orange

8. Complementary color scheme
A pair of complementary colors---colors that are across from one another on the color wheel. Visually striking, offering high contrast.

9. Andy Warhol

11. Split-complementary
One color, and the colors adjacent to it’s complement. Slightly less contrast than a complementary color scheme, a bit more subtle, while still vibrant.

12. Green, red-violet, red-orange

13. Triadic color scheme
Three Colors that are equally spaced on the color wheel

14. Mondrian, Triadic Color Scheme

15. Jacob Lawrence
Composition based on secondary colors

16. Double Complementary
Four colors, forming a rectangle. This arrangement is a set of two complementary pairings.

17. Double complementary: Quadratic Color Scheme
Four colors, equally spaced. Connecting them forms a square

18. Kehinde Wiley
Red; Orange; Blue; Green

19. Willem DeKooning
Blue-violet---Yellow-Orange
Green---Red

20. Color schemes depend on a LIMITED PALETTE—not all colors will be used-- to ensure harmony Other ways to create harmony would utilize consideration of the value and saturation of colors.

21. Sol Lewitt Wall painting using only full-saturation colors
OPEN PALETTE: is when any colors from the color wheel are used—there is no limit
Open-palette compositions will be more pleasing if saturation and value are taken into consideration.

22. “ Color Keys”, or color choices dictated by saturation, tone, and value.
None of these colors are at full-saturation. Each is a shade of a pure hue.
These are all: Low-saturation colors. Desaturated colors on the low (dark) end of the value scale.
Deeper, heavier Colors

23. High-value, low saturation Colors: Tints, desaturated colors mixed with white
Full -saturation Colors: Colors at their full-saturation
Brighter, more intense colors
Lighter, subtler “quieter” colors

24. Some principles for harmonious color choices within an image

25. PRINCIPLE OF FAMILIARITY
Familiarity is pleasing and readily accepted. Color schemes based on nature will seem pleasing to most people, because we are used to those combinations.
Light and dark variations of the same color will harmonize.
Mary Heilmann, Hermosa Beach

26. Color swatches from a nature photo that could be used for inspiration for a design.

27. Principle of Resemblance
Colors harmonize better when the differences between them are less. In this Dali painting, there are similar colors in the clouds as in Christ and the cross, creating resemblance and harmony in the image.
Salvador Dali

28. Principle of Novelty
Among the mostly analogous blues and greens, the orange creates a ‘pop’.
While we crave harmony and balance, too much becomes boring. A new or unexpected color will draw attention to itself and enliven the piece.

29. Principle of Order
Having an orderly plan to determine color choices, like a specific color scheme
Triadic color scheme using secondary colors

30. Avoidance of Ambiguity
Don’t use colors that seem incongruous with the rest of your scheme—a gray amongst vivid colors may draw attention away from the rest of the composition and ruin the flow.
An off-hue color may be distracting because the viewer won’t know if it is intentional. There are three reds in this photo, and they don’t quite work together. Are they meant to match?

31. Composing With Color
Dana Schutz, Bad Instincts

32. Color weight: color’s tendency to seem to rise or fall in a composition (depending on it’s relationships)
LIGHTER
HEAVIER
Achromatic
Colors
High Saturation
Colors
High Value (light)
Colors
Dark Value
Colors
High Saturation
Warm Colors
Medium-value Cool Colors
Low Saturation
Light Colors
High Saturation
Dark Colors
Inherently
Light Hues
Inherently
Dark Hues

33. Color weight can also refer to importance in an image
Color weight can also refer to importance in an image. In this still from Schindler’s List, the red coat is shown in color to ensure that viewer’s pay attention to the little girl. It has more ‘weight’ than the colors in the rest of the scene.

34. Traditional Color Contrasts, thought to balance a composition
Light/Dark
Contrast
Hue Contrast
Cool/Warm
Contrast
Complementary
Contrast

35. Light/Dark Contrast-a mix of high and low value colors
JWM Turner, Storm at Sea

36. Warm/Cool Contrast
Graham Nickson

37. Hue Contrast-very different hues, rather than analogous colors
Stuart Davis

38. Complementary Contrast

39. This book jacket is not based on any color scheme. However, it ‘works’
This book jacket is not based on any color scheme. However, it ‘works’. The blue/green and red are similar values, as are the pink and yellow. The black stands out in contrast. Red, pink, and yellow are all warm, so the blue/green adds additional pleasing contrast.
Bruno Paul

40. Compositional Tools to create harmony
Harmony: compositional oneness and cohesion. The following elements help create harmony:
Repetition: The use of the same visual element (in our case, colors) to create unity
Continuity: degree of flow between parts of a composition
Focal points: Parts of the composition that command the viewer’s attention and allow them to look closer

41. Romare Bearden
How is repetition used here?

42. Henri Matisse

43. Dana Schutz
Continuity: elements that lead the viewer’s eye from one part of the composition to the next.
As these colors blend into one another (white to yellow, blue to grey to yellow) they create continuity, allowing the viewer’s eye to travel from one section and one element to another

44. Romare Bearden
How is repetition and continuity used here?

45. Continuity is achieved by the green forms linking different sections of this image, as well as the red glasses linking different sections.
James Rosenquist

46. Emphasis will depend on a contrast of value, color, or saturation, causing one color-area to stand out.
Kaye Donachie

47. Van Gogh

49. Focal Point: Contrast of complements

50. Balance
The equal distribution of weight or force among elements of a composition
Symmetry: mirror imaging across an axis
Asymmetrical balance: uneven yet balanced components to a composition
(think of balance like a scale—it needn’t be identical to be balanced—one ten lb. brick weights the same as ten one lb. bricks)

51. Henri Matisse

52. Elizabeth Murray
How does she utilize visual weight of colors to create balance?

53. How is this painting balanced through color?
Wassily Kandinsky

54. Comic Examples
‘Krazy Kat’ by George Herriman

57. Chris Ware (artist’s block?)