Complementary Color Scheme

1. Introduction: Hi, everyone. It's Larissa. It's been a while, but I'm glad I'm back with another color scheme shot class. This class is part of my color schemes class series. In this series, we will be looking closely at these commonly used Cali schemes, monochromatic, analogous, complimentary, split complimentary, triadic, and tetradic. We will understand how these calor schemes work and how to put together a color palette accordingly. After that, we will create a floor painting in each color scheme. In my last two classes, we have talked about the monochromatic color scheme and the analogous Cali scheme. Today we will take a look at the complimentary Cali scheme. We will learn how it works, how to put together a complimentary color palette, and we will use that color palette to paint the floor painting in guash. So without further ado, let's get started. 2. Supplies & Resources: As usual, we will need the following supplies when taking this class. Gouache or acrylic gouache or acrylic paints, paint brushes, watercolor paper in a four or a five size, a pink palette, a water container, and drying cloth or paper towels. Just a quick reminder that watercolor paints are probably not a good fit for this class, only because the methods are used to mix paints don't apply to watercolor. But if you know how to use watercolor and you manage to put together a complimentary color palette in that way, then go ahead. I have prepared the following resources for this class. First, is this infographic that shows all the possible combinations of complimentary cals. You can use it as a reference when you put together a complimentary color palette. I will explain it a bit more in lesson three when we do a deep dive into the complimentary coal scheme. You will find the link to the infographic under this class. Second is this printers board of images I have taken over the years. They are part of my inspiration library showing plants that I find beautiful and interesting. I've added some new photos to the board for the last few months. I hope you will also take your own pictures and use them for your painting in this class. But if you don't have anything ready to use, feel free to use my images as a reference. You will also find the link to the printers board under this class. In the next lesson, we will take a closer look at the complimentary color scheme. 3. What is Complementary Color Scheme: To understand how the complementary color scheme works, we need to understand the following concepts. All the theories about color schemes are based on the color wheel, which contains primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors. We have been using the color wheel to explain the monochromatic color scheme and the analogous color scheme in the last two classes, and we will continue to use it while we talk about the complimentary color scheme here. We also talked about the term color family in the last class. It means a group of colors that all have the same hue on the color wheel, but they vary in tints, tones and shades. For example, if you have the color red in your palette, you can add white to it to make a light red, add black to it to make a dark red, and add gray to it to make a muted red. And all these colors together is a color family because they all come from the color red. By the way, if the terms hue, tin, tone, and shade seems unfamiliar to you, I highly recommend that you check out my Color Well class in your spare time so you can get a better understanding of these terms. You will find the link to my color Well class in the descriptions below. Now let's come back to the complimentary color scheme. It is created by two color families that are on opposite sides of the color wheel. By this definition, we can easily identify six variations of a complimentary color skein. They are the red and green color families, the red orange and blue green color families, the orange and blue color families, the yellow orange and blue purple color families, the yellow and purple color families, and the yellow green and red purple color families. So why is the complimentary color scheme used in art and design? Complimentary colours provide viewers with a high contrast visual experience by making each other stand out. When you place complimentary colors next to each other, they will appear brighter and more noticeable. The complimentary color scheme is perfect for catching the viewers attention. So if you want to create vibrant and eye catching work, you may consider using complimentary colors. In the next lesson, we will put together a complimentary color palette for our painting. 4. Preparing a Complementary Color Palette: Now that we understand how the complimentary color scheme works, we can start putting together a complimentary color palette for our painting. You can bring up my infographic and pick a color combination in it, but I have one suggestion for you. Once you've picked a complimentary color combination, you need to decide which color family is more prominent than the other to avoid them competing with each other in your work. We have learned that complimentary colors can grab people's attention by providing them with a high contrast visual experience. But the arrangement of colors needs to be done with intention so that the visual experience can be pleasant. Making one color family dominant in a complimentary color palette will enable the other color family to complement it well. I will use my painting to explain this point further. You can see I have picked the red and green color combination for my work. Intentionally, I have made the red colour family stand out more than the green color family because I'm painting floals and I want to highlight the flowers but not the leaves. That's why the red colors on the flowers are bright and highly saturated. And by comparison, the green colors on the leaves are darker and less saturated. All I'm saying is when you put together a complimentary color palette, think about which color family you want to send out more than the other, and make sure you arrange the colors accordingly. So in my case, to put together this complimentary color palette, I have mixed these paints to create the main red and then add white to it to create the other two red colors. I have mixed these paints to create the main green and then add black or gray to it to create the other green colors. I have also added a lot of white to the main green color to create a pale green background color for my painting. So please take some time to put together a complimentary color palette for your painting. Think about the six variations of complimentary colors that I mentioned earlier. See which one you would like to pick and then assemble the colors accordingly. When you're ready, you can move on to the next lesson and see how I use my complimentary color palette on my painting. O. 5. Painting a Floral Pattern in Complementary Colors: Okay, let's paint a floor painting using complimentary colors. I will use this picture that I took as a reference for my painting, which can be found on the printers board I shared with you in the descriptions below. But if you can use your own picture for reference, that's even better. And again, I'll be using this complimentary colour palette that I put together in the last lesson for my painting. So I want to point out here that when I was painting this top out of the leaves, I wasn't happy with that green colour. I think it was a bit too light. So I added a bit of black to that green to make it a little bit darker. What I'm saying is, feel free to tweak the colors in your palette as you go, just like what I'm doing here. Even though we have prepared the palette for the painting beforehand, it doesn't mean you have to stick to it no matter what. You can always be flexible about it. In fact, use your knowledge about color since we've been learning about color so much to decide how you would tweak your color palette to make your painting look better. So that's it for this class. I hope you will have fun painting and artwork using complimentary collies. And don't forget to share your work in the project gallery so I can give you some feedback. I look forward to seeing it. Thank you again, and I will see you in the next class.