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In order to understand complementary colors, one must first become familiar with the color wheel. The colors a that are opposite each other on the color wheel, such as red / green, blue / orange, and yellow / violet are complementary. If placed next to one another in their fullest intensity, they tend to almost vibrate. The colors push each other to brilliance.
Because of the complementary color's opposite natures, when these colors are mixed, their brilliance is dull and the mixture can turn to a muddy brown. The reason why is because the colors have all the primaries, red, yellow and blue in the mixtures. All the primaries mixed will result in a very muddy mixture. Understanding this fact will give the student a clue for help in remembering the complementary colors. If you pick red, then the 2 primaries that are missing, blue and yellow, make green, its complement. Simply picking yellow will result in blue and red, the other 2 primaries (violet when mixed) and so on.
When handled correctly, complementary colors work together to mute color. These are used for areas of shadow or for lovely grays that make black and white seem so very ordinary. There is no need to purchase tubes of grains for you already have them at your fingertips waiting to be mixed. But the beauty of the gray is determined on how you mix the colors, whether the starting colors are a cool or warm or whether one color dominates.
Using complements for grays work to make a watercolor painting come alive. If you were to use a grayed down version of violet next to a yellow, the color would become more striking and the gray more interesting. And if one were painting a yellow flower, using violet as a shadow will make the yellow even more brilliant. If the shadow were painted black or a muddy brown, it would not have the richness needed to harmonize with the yellow.
Complementary colors are also a good choice for a color scheme in the entire work. These colors make for a harmonic balance in a work of art if used together in full strength and with their various tints and shades. Look at the paintings of various artists and try to see if you can detect a complementary color scheme within the painting. Sometimes the center of interest will carry the brilliant color with other darks or grays of the complementary color nearby. And try complementary colors in your next work as your preference of colors and mixtures.
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