Have you ever wondered how some artists are able to find perfect color combinations that just seem to work, every time?

It’s not just art – it’s science.

And in this video and blog post, I’m going to show you how to use the color wheel and some basic formulas known as “Color Harmonies” to choose color combinations that are appealing, cohesive and just look GOOD.

Using The Color Wheel and Color Harmonies to Choose Good Color Combinations

Watch the video below to learn the basics of color theory and how to use the traditional color wheel to choose colors that work well together.

Color Cube - Find Out More

Get the Color Catalog - 250 color palettes in an interactive PDF format!

Why are color harmonies important?

Using color harmonies, you can evoke certain emotions, create a mood, or add context to an image.

When you don’t use color harmony, your art can appear bland and boring, or so chaotic that your brain can’t process it properly.

Bland image from lack of variety of colorsThis picture is bland because there isn’t enough variety of colors in the image.

Chaotic image from too many colorsThis picture appears too chaotic because there are too many colors in the image.

Color Theory Workbook

Get the printable workbook, with worksheets to help you use the color wheel and color harmonies with your own pencils or markers.

Primary, secondary and tertiary colors

So let’s start at the beginning.

You may remember back to school where you learned about primary, secondary and tertiary colors.

We are taught that the primary colors are red, blue and yellow.

When mixed together, these make the secondary colors – green, orange, and purple.

Take it a step further, and you’ll get the tertiary colors – yellow-green, red-orange, and so on.

Primary colors - red, blue and yellowThe primary colors – red, blue and yellow.

Secondary colors - green, orange and purpleThe secondary colors – green, orange and purple

Tertiary colors - yellow-green, red-orange and blue-purpleThe tertiary colors – yellow-green, red-orange and blue-purple.

These make up the traditional color wheel, that was created by Sir Isaac Newton and helps us to understand how different colors work together.

The traditional color wheelThe traditional color wheel.

The traditional wheel is no longer the only color wheel that exists – there are other color wheels and methods that are used by artists and designers to create a bigger range of colors when mixed together (you can see the other ones in the video).

These color wheels are important, and I’ve gone into depth in each of them in my post here, but when it comes to choosing color combinations, the traditional color wheel is still our best resource for understanding color harmony and how colors work together to create beautiful art.

What is the color wheel made up of?

There are 4 main “qualities” of each color on our wheel.

The first is the HUE. This is simply the color position around the wheel – and the brightest, purest version of each color. Our wheel uses 12 main colors, but we can also work with all of the hues in between.

The color position around the traditional color wheel - hue

Second, we have SATURATION. This can also be known as INTENSITY or CHROMA. This tells us how vibrant a color is. A desaturated color is greyed out and dull, while a SATURATED color is vibrant and strong.

The intensity of a color - saturation

Then, we have VALUE. This tells us how dark or light a color is. We can create SHADES of our color by adding black, or  TINTS of our color by adding white. We can also add TONE by adding grey.

How dark (shades) or light (tints) a color is - value

And finally, we have TEMPERATURE.

How warm or cool a color is - temperature

The color wheel can be split into 2 main groups – warm colors and cool colors.

But individual colors can also change in temperature as we move around our wheel. A warm red includes more yellow, and a cool red includes more blue.

Warm colors and cool colorsThe colors on the left-hand side of the wheel are described as ‘warm’ colors, and the colors on the right-hand side as ‘cool’.

A warm red containts more yellow, a cool red contains more blueA ‘warm’ red includes more yellow, whereas a ‘cool’ red includes more blue.

When we combine HUE, SATURATION, VALUE and TEMPERATURE, we find ourselves with a myriad of variations of each of our 12 main colors.

How do we use color harmonies?

So how do we use all these colors together?

We can use our 12 basic hues on the color wheel along with some easy-to-use formulas to create an endless collection of color combinations that look balanced, appealing, and just ‘work’.

These formulas are known as ‘color harmonies’.

Monochromatic, split-complementary, tetradic, complementary, triadic and analogous color schemes

Monochromatic color scheme

Monochromatic Color Scheme

The first and easiest is a MONOCHROMATIC color harmony. This takes just one base color (or hue) from our wheel and uses different shades, tones or tints to create a group of colors. It’s one of the easiest color harmonies to create and looks simple, cohesive and organized.

Complementary color scheme

Complementary Color Scheme

A COMPLEMENTARY color scheme takes 2 colors from opposite sides of the color wheel, such as red and green or blue and orange. This type of color scheme is great for creating strong contrast in your image.

Split-complementary color scheme

Split Complementary Color Scheme

A SPLIT COMPLEMENTARY color scheme is similar to a complementary color scheme, except one of the colors is split into two nearby colors.

This keeps the high contrast of the complementary color scheme, but also adds more variety.

Triadic color scheme

Triadic Color Scheme

A TRIADIC color scheme uses 3 colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel like a triangle. These color combinations are often bold and vibrant.

Tetradic color scheme

Tetradic Color Scheme

TETRADIC colors are 4 colors in a rectangle shape- made up of 2 sets of complementary colors together as one palette. These palettes work best when you focus on one main color and use the other colors as contrasting accents.

Analogous color scheme

Analogous Color Scheme

An ANALOGOUS color scheme uses 2-4 colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. This is one of the simplest and most appealing color harmonies, and works best if you choose one dominant color and use the other colors as accents.

Color Cube - Find Out More

Tips for using color harmonies effectively

These different color harmonies are a great guide to create colors that work well together. You can create more variety by changing the shades, tones and tints within each color palette, giving you endless ways to mix and match colors that look great.

This can all be a bit overwhelming – but don’t worry, after you’ve started applying these methods, you’ll start to pick up an intuition and confidence for which colors work well together, and which colors don’t.

Here are some general tips to help you:

Tip 1: Pick one dominant color

Whichever color harmony you choose, using ONE dominant color will create a sense of balance in your design. You can choose one main color and use the rules of color harmonies to find other colors that work as accents or smaller details in your design.

Example of the use of a split-complementary color scheme

Tip 2: Use just a few colors

Simple is best. Adding too many colors in your design can quickly become overwhelming or chaotic to the viewer. Choosing just a few colors and applying these color rules can create art that is bold, simple, and yet still interesting.

comparison of color schemes - a busy color scheme and a simple color scheme

Tip 3: Use color palettes for inspiration

Learning the rules of color theory can help you know what works well together, but it doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch every time.

You can find color palettes like those I’ve included in the Color Catalog, that are inspired by nature or existing designs and naturally incorporate colors that look good together.

Color Palette - lilac, purple, blue, teal

Color Palette - teal, brown

Color Palette 358 - Tropical Sunset

Color Palette - yellow, orange, red, black

Pink and blue

Bright buildings

Color Palette - red, orange, lilac, purple

Color Palette 362 - Fiery Sunset

Get the Color Catalog - 250 color palettes in an interactive PDF format!

Choosing good color combinations doesn’t have to be hard. And challenging yourself to using some of these tools and formulas can expand your skills and help you to be creative in a whole new way.

Color Theory Workbook

Get the printable workbook, with worksheets to help you use the color wheel and color harmonies with your own pencils or markers.

Watch the follow up to this article here, where I take a deep dive into the color theory debate and the history behind the color wheel!