Color harmony of related colors. From the lessons of Roman (4) Relatively contrasting

• 12 July 2015

  Serey, I repeat once again - the most suitable photos were chosen. I didn't want to take the trivial brush strokes as an example, as is used in most textbooks. If we really find fault with the pictures, then the poster is far from a rectangular scheme. We have a network of 3 colors in the blue-green segment, namely blue, cyan, green, and 3 colors in red and yellow, namely yellow, orange and pink (this is analogous, red, but this is red with the addition of blue). So the diagram looks a lot more complicated. The first interior - I personally think that the floor is just gray, and the blueness is its banal optical effect from the excess of red-orange. With the third picture - I agree - there is an additional color, but our scheme is also not limited to 4 colors: we have 4 related dominant colors, red, pink (red with an admixture of blue), violet and blue-violet. And there are elements of yellow, which is complementary only to purple. Here it can be considered as 2 variants of the combination used in one design. And then there are the blue reflections of the lamp light, which also fall out of these patterns.
  Perfectly bookish pure form A related combination in interiors and advertising is not so common, as it is boring. I looked at more than one hundred photos on this topic and basically everywhere there is at least a tiny one - but a contradictory element (which leads to a more complex scheme), somewhere there is a spot of additional color in the picture hanging in the room, somewhere there is a backlight, etc. ... Otherwise, the photo does not look good.
  Perhaps it was necessary to render the colors that I consider related separately - for a more visual transmission of my idea - I will try to take this moment into account in the near future.

• 30 June 2015

  Colors cannot be neglected, if you have entered a color, then the scheme has been changed. You teach, and the students look at your pictures.
  In the poster, the classic "rectangular pattern" combination consists of two pairs. orange, blue and green, red.
  Interior 1 "crashed addition". Interior 2, 4 colors: 3 related and 1 contrasting. You yourself know all this. But who came to read it does not know.

• 29 June 2015

  Both in the poster and in the interiors, the most suitable photos were selected. The dominant colors in the poster are blue, cyan and green. They are just related flowers. Of all this, only the yellow-red color of the shot and the pink stripe in the background fall out, but they are not dominant. The rest of the image is fully consistent.
  In the interior of the bedroom, the colors orange and red are related, the only strong claim may be to the color of the floor, but in my opinion it is achromatic dark gray. The light blue that it gives in places I think is nothing more than an optical color effect.
  The last image of the interior is a play of violet, purple and red colors in several shades. They all lie on the color wheel one after the other. Only the yellow elements are knocked out of all this, but they are not dominant. And added as contrasting ones. In this case, I believe that you can neglect them in order to see the main theme - related colors. Unfortunately, at the time of selecting a photo with the necessary parameters, I did not succeed in more accurate pictures without any contrasting elements. And those that already exist allow you to convey the overall effect for understanding this combination.

Coloristics is a fascinating science that studies colors, their combinations and effects on humans. It would seem, what kind of science is it - to consider colors? However, a lot of attention is paid to the study of color in various fields: in interior design, web design, photography, clothing design, hairdressing, floristry, advertising, marketing and even psychology.

What color studies

Studying the nature of color is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. Coloring connoisseurs can spend hours talking about basic, complementary, and composite colors. A lot will be said about characteristics, about contrasts, color harmony, color, color language, about spectra. This list can be continued endlessly.

Coloristics is a very important science, since the right choice is not only pleasing to the human eye, but also has a powerful effect on physiological processes and on the psychological state of a person. Skillfully combining colors, you can evoke the necessary associations, emotions, and form a certain image.

Colors. Human exposure

Employees of advertising agencies skillfully use such a color function as the formation of a certain image. With the help of psychologists, it was revealed that the advantage of certain colors in advertising can cause a certain feeling in a person.

• So, for example, red is identified with strong emotions, decisiveness, and danger. This color awakens desire.
• Green is both relaxing and invigorating. It symbolizes purity, freshness, nature, as well as a new beginning.
• Orange is the color of optimists.
• Blue is the color of stability, calmness, minimalism.
• Black is associated with luxury and elegance. No wonder many luxury goods, such as cars, watches or elite alcohol, are advertised in dark colors.

Types of color combinations

At the moment, coloristics has 10 types of color combinations:

• Basic.
• Difficult.
• Composite.
• Achromatic.
• Monochromatic.
• Neutral.
• Additional.
• Related.
• Contrasting.

One of the most common ways to combine colors is through contrasts. Even if you do not know what contrasting colors are, you have definitely come across this phenomenon in life. Have you noticed how harmoniously red ribbons and toys look on a Christmas tree? This is because red and green are contrasting colors. So what are contrasting colors?

Itten's color wheel

Professionals use special reference materials to help them determine the right color combination. There are hundreds of color combination tables, and each has its own advantages. But most often, creative people use Itten.

Johannes Itten is a true color expert. He devoted his entire life to the study of color. Itten gave this knowledge to the world in the form of a manual entitled "The Art of Color", which is a "bible" for artists, designers and everyone whose work is related to colors and design.

The color wheel contains 12 shades of the three basic blue and yellow. Contrasting colors are those that are sharply opposite to each other and are on opposite sides of the circle.

If we turn to the image of Itten's circle, we immediately see that yellow is a contrasting pair with purple, blue with orange, and a contrasting color with red is green.

The right combination

Contrasting color combinations are often called complementary. What are these combinations used for?

This combination is often used in painting when it is necessary to highlight or emphasize some object of the painting. If you look around, you will notice that nature is full of contrasts: a scarlet flaming fly agaric against the background of emerald greenery beckons with its colors; bright yellow sun blazing in the blue sky; blue waves caressing the golden sandy shore.

Interior designers have long recognized that it is the complimentary one that will help you choose a harmonious color pair, but it is necessary to remember a few points that will help to "squeeze the maximum" out of the range of shades:

• Contrast colors should not be in equal proportions - this will lead to imbalance. The best option is to use one color as the main one and complement it with accents of a paired shade.
• Another way to combine contrasting pairs is to use different shades of two colors. This will balance the color gamut.
• To tone down the brightness of complimentary colors, dilute them with white or cream. For example, if a set of and blue blouse looks too defiant, you can soften the look with white accessories.
• Professionals recommend using the main and complementary colors in certain proportions. For example, for a pair of red-green this proportion will be 1: 1, orange-blue - 1: 2, yellow-violet - 1: 3.

These rules will be useful if you use pure spectral colors. You can see them in the picture below.

How to use contrasting colors

If you're worried about using contrasts incorrectly, remember that muted colors are easier to use because they tend to "interrupt" each other less.

The main rule of combining contrasting colors: the more intense the color tone, the less the surface area on which it is used should be.

By following these rules, you can create the most harmonious image, be it clothing, bouquet, interior design or website. Otherwise, disharmony, negative perception will appear.

Color circle is a very powerful instrument in the right hands. Knowledge of the laws of building colors will allow you to easily manipulate the mood of the color palette and create the most harmonious compositions. All the rules are based on the initial appearance of the color wheel, so you will have to return to it in the process of studying the topic.

It is worth noting that the color reproduction of monitors is far from ideal, and at some settings, different shades may merge and be completely indistinguishable. If possible, calibrate the monitor.

Regardless of the monitor settings, you can study the essence of the method, but you should make an allowance for the fact that on another computer what you enter on yours will look different.

Color circle

Color combinations:

Achromatic

Achromatic colors are absent in the spectrum. This combination has only white, shades of gray and black. In nature, pure achromatic colors are practically not found. They always have impurities of other colors.

Achromatic colors

In photography, achromatic colors are used to convey texture, volume, dullness, shine. These colors are used mainly in interiors and in portraits. At the same time, adding one color to a monochrome plot will create a strong accent. The most commonly used color is red.

Primary colors

The main colors are red, yellow, blue. To get any color, you only need these three colors. To transfer shades, you will also need black and yellow.

Primary colors

Composite

The following colors are obtained by mixing the primary colors in pairs. They make green, purple and orange. This can be seen on the color wheel. For example, green is made from yellow and blue.

Composite colors

Complex

More complex colors are obtained by combining composite colors with adjacent primary colors. For example, orange and yellow will give yellow-orange. You can get six complex colors. They are visible on the color wheel. You can get red-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-orange, red-violet.

By darkening or lightening these colors, you can get the entire color palette. The color wheel shows the mixing of the reference colors equally. The user is free to edit both the brightness and the degree of color mixing.

The types of relationship between colors open up the possibility of practical application of the color wheel. Certain color combinations affect perception and convey a certain mood. The colors located next to each other have a different perception than the opposite ones. Let's look at the full color wheel.

Contrasting

Contrast colors are those between which three intermediate colors are located on the color wheel. There are only six pairs of contrasting colors on the color wheel.

Contrasting colors create a very harsh and haunting look. It is undesirable to build the entire scene on contrasts. They are suitable for creating small accents. For example, you can make the general lighting of a scene in yellow tones and insert small areas accented with blue. This is used in interiors, in clothing and when processing images in Photoshop.

If contrasting colors are diluted with black or white, then they can be more actively used in the scene. Pale, creamy contrasting colors will not hurt the eye too much, which means they can be applied to a greater extent.

Additional

Complementary colors are those that are opposite each other on the color wheel.

An example of additional colors:

Complementary colors create a less dramatic look than contrasting colors, but they are also very intrusive. If the complementary colors are diluted, you can get a very pleasant composition.

Monochromatic

Monochromatic colors are combinations of varying brightness and saturation of the same color. Also, sometimes such combinations are called nuanced. Such a combination of colors gives calmness and stability to the composition.

Related

Related colors are a sequence of three contiguous colors. Just choosing one color, add two adjacent colors to it and get three related colors. Such a sample can be called harmonious. The color wheel provides 12 related color combinations. All three colors will always look good in combination. The perception will only depend on whether warm or cold colors are chosen.

As in the previous combinations, these colors can be diluted with monochromatic colors.

Neutral

Neutral colors are obtained by using two colors located within two bands, while one of them will be smoothed by adding related ones or diluted with white or black.

An example of neutral colors:

Relatively contrasting

These are the colors that are located on the circle to the left and to the right of the selected color, complementary to it on the color wheel.

Combinations of related-contrasting colors represent, perhaps, the most extensive type of color harmonies. In the color wheel system, related-contrasting colors are located in adjacent quarters. These are warm yellow-red and yellow-green colors, cold blue-green and blue-red colors, warm yellow-green and cold blue-green colors, warm yellow-red and cold blue-red colors. In total, as you can easily see, we have four groups of related-contrasting colors.

Let's take a closer look at the colors of the first group - yellow-red and yellow-green. On the one hand, they carry a sign of kinship, since in both of them there is a certain amount of a common pure yellow color: they are all somewhat yellowish compared to other colors. At the same time, pure red is present in yellow-red colors in different quantities, and in the group of yellow-green colors there is a pure color, contrasting and complementary to red. Thus, to a certain extent, these colors bear a sign of contrast.

Harmonious combinations of related-contrasting colors of different groups are characterized by increased color activity and complexity.

Not all combinations of related-contrasting colors are equally harmonious. Particularly harmonious are the color combinations that are located in the color wheel at the ends of the vertical and horizontal chords (in Fig. 2, several of these chords are shown with dashed lines). This is due to the fact that there is a double bond between such pairs of related-contrasting colors: they consist of the same amount of the unifying main color and the same amount of contrasting colors.

Rice. 2.

Artistic practice shows that related-contrasting colors, even in their pure form, without admixtures of achromatic colors to them, harmoniously combine with one another, provided that the amount of the unifying main color and the amount of contrasting main colors in the two combined colors are the same. But the artist often deals with colors of more complex shades, whitened or darkened. The feeling of emotional expressiveness of related-contrasting colors naturally changes depending on which color circle the colors for combinations are chosen from.

The simplest harmonious combination of two related-contrasting colors is significantly enriched when one achromatic color is added to them, especially white or black. Another solution is similar to the one given, when colors from the shadow rows of these colors are added to the combination of two related-contrasting colors.

In the latter case, we have one of the types of harmonic combinations of two shadow rows of related-contrasting colors. In general, these harmonic combinations are subdivided as follows:

two pure, related-contrasting colors, which are complemented by the colors of the shadow row of one of the combined colors;

two pure, related-contrasting colors, complemented by colors from both shaded rows; one clear and the rest of the shadow rows of related contrasting colors.

In this case, it is advisable to surround the pure color with the colors of the shadow row of this color, and take the rest from the shadow row of a different color and place them at some distance;

All related-contrasting colors are either darkened or whitened (harmony acquires a more restrained flavor, since the polar properties of colors are softened).

Let us emphasize: only three, at least three colors make it possible to fully judge the combinations and relationships of colors in the ornamental composition. In this regard, we will name some other harmonic connections of 3-4 colors.

Color harmony can be formed by a combination of colors located at the vertices of an equilateral triangle inscribed in the color wheel. This triangle has one of its sides parallel to the horizontal or vertical diameter; in the apex opposite to the indicated side, there is a main color, which is contrastingly complementary to that main color, which is part of a pair of related-contrasting colors (Fig. 3). In the color wheel we have four such equilateral triangles, in the system of five circles - 20.

Rice. 3.

Each triad of colors has two related-contrasting colors balanced by a double bond of unifying and contrasting primary colors. It is better to darken or whiten the third main color.

Another kind of harmonious combinations of three colors: two related-contrasting colors and the third color - the main one - unites the first two colors. For example, in Fig. 4 shows several corresponding triangles.

Rice. 4.

To make the color combination of this triad more harmonious, you can reduce the amount of the pure main color by darkening or lightening it.

Another type of harmonic triads is formed by colors located at the vertices of right-angled triangles, provided that two legs connect pairs of related-contrasting colors (legs are parallel to the horizontal and vertical diameters of the color wheel). In fig. 5 shows two such right-angled triangles. In each of them, the color, which is located at the vertex opposite to the hypotenuse, is related-contrasting with respect to the other two colors, and the latter, in turn, are connected with each other by contrasting relationships. In total, four such triangles can be built in one color wheel, in a system of five circles - 20.

Rice. 5.

Combinations of four related-contrasting colors form a rectangle on the base, each side of which connects two related-contrasting colors (Fig. 6).

Rice. 6.

The closest and most active connections arise between colors when a rectangle is replaced by a square. Colors located on the diagonal of a rectangle or square are contrast-complementary (other color pairs are related-contrast).

Harmonic relations of related-contrasting colors from three and four components of the main color wheel are used in practice relatively rarely. Artists prefer combinations of related contrasting colors from the color wheel system. First, all the types of harmonic combinations discussed above remain valid for any darkened or lightened color wheel. Secondly, any three or four related-contrasting colors can be combined with the colors of the shadow rows of any of these related-contrasting colors.

Concluding this section, we note that it is in the combinations of related-contrasting colors that two basic principles of constructing color harmonies are manifested with full completeness and clarity: the principle of the sameness and identity of colors and the principle of contrasting color tones.

Hello! Today we will try to figure out how to correctly select and combine colors when working on spreads of photobooks. Including when creating elements for scrap sets.

In our daily life, we very often have to deal with the problem of color combinations. By and large, we solve this problem every day: when choosing which set of clothes to wear, how to apply makeup correctly, which accessories to choose, which curtains to hang in the bedroom or what color to put a pillow on the sofa :). The same applies to photographs (against which background is it better to stand in a green dress), or the design of spreads of photobooks (combination of elements in a cluster, selection of a background suitable for photographs, etc.).

In order to correctly combine colors so that our image, photographs and photobooks look harmonious, it is very useful to use the COLOR CIRCLE. In this article, we will look at the basic rules for reading the color wheel.

Here is one example of a color wheel.

How do you use it?

Exists 3 primary colors: red, blue, yellow. When mixing these colors in different versions, you get secondary colors: green(blue + yellow), Orange(yellow + red) and purple(blue + red). All this is remembered from childhood.

What colors are combined with each other?

Two opposite colors on the color wheel

Or rather, it is a secondary color and the primary color that is not contained in this secondary.

To make it easier to remember, I will give you the following examples.

• Green (secondary) = yellow (primary) + blue (primary)

There is no red in the composition, therefore, green and red form a contrast.

• Orange (secondary) = yellow (primary) + red (primary)

There is no blue in the composition, so orange and blue form a contrast.

• Purple (Secondary) = Red (Primary) + Blue (Primary)

There is no yellow in the composition, which means that purple and yellow are contrasting.

So, these are pairs of opposite colors, the combinations of which are highly contrasting and give a very interesting effect.

- red and green;

- blue and orange;

- yellow and purple.

Example: red and green.

Example: blue and orange.

Example: yellow and purple.

Three colors on the color wheel that form a triangle.

Example: green + purple + orange. This page shows a green and purple cluster on a pale orange background.

Two related colors and one contrasting.

Example: green + pink + yellow. Here (in the borders) green and yellow are related colors, and pink is contrasting, that is, it stands in the color wheel opposite them.

Three related colors and one contrasting.

Example: yellow + orange + red + blue (contrasting)

Three related colors.

Example: Green + blue + cyan in a cluster.

Also, colors are divided into warm and cold.

Warm: red, orange, yellow.

Cold: green, blue, purple.

Designers and photographers very often use this separation in their work to enhance the perception of space. For example, to make a small room look bigger, they use cool colors. Conversely, warm colors visually reduce the space.

As for photography, photos look more advantageous with warm colors in the foreground and cold ones in the background. If, on the contrary, the picture will be very unsightly.

This, of course, also applies to our photo books. Before choosing a background for a spread, you need to determine what will be on our page, what color clusters, frames, photographs. Therefore, it is best to choose the background last.

If we want to get a more contrasting spread, then the background should be in cool colors, and the rest of the elements should be in warm colors in a contrasting color. If we want something more calm, then it is better to choose related colors.

Example: in clusters, a warm color (red) + a background of a cold color (blue) prevails.

An example of a quieter spread with related colors (shades of blue and green)

The question of color combination is very interesting, it is not possible to study this issue thoroughly within the framework of the marathon. Dozens of books and works have been written on this issue. We have just touched on the top of this interesting and very necessary topic. Then you can continue to study this issue on your own. In addition to reading books, it will be useful for you to look here))) This is an Adobe Kuler resource, where you can not only find a huge number of color schemes, but also create your own.

The lesson was prepared by the team of the site "Photobooks for the soul". Artist - Julia.

This time, you will not receive such a task. I would advise you to analyze this material, if something remains incomprehensible to you, find more material on the Internet. In the next lesson, you will be able to apply this knowledge in practice.

Participants of the marathon and readers of the site, do not forget to comment on articles, express your opinion, thoughts, etc. We are interested in your opinion!

And don't forget to click on social. buttons located just below if you are interested in participating in the marathon.