#EXAMPLES OF ANALOGOUS COLORS PLUS#

This has more contrast than if there was a strict gradient moving through the piece, and brings attention to the various shapes that make up the stag’s silhouette. There is a very rough gradient: the head is yellow and the body moves through orange and red, but there are places where red and yellow are right next to each other. Sunset Stag by Sarah hats in the house uses yellows, oranges and reds mixed together. Gradients are low contrast because you’re putting the colors that are closest on the color wheel next to each other. However, the use of a gradient adds movement to your design since your eye is inclined to follow the gradient.

#EXAMPLES OF ANALOGOUS COLORS PLUS#

The aqua/purple end points being put next to each other in the quilt, plus the aqua/purple colors being the lightest tones in the quilt all work together to draw your attention to that area of the quilt. The gradient starts at the aqua, moves up the quilt, then continues at the bottom of the quilt, ending at the light purple. In the example above, Angela created an analogous color gradient in her Feathers Quilt Top using blues and purples. The more colors you represent between your starting colors, the smoother the gradient. To create a gradient (or a smooth transition between colors), pick two colors, and then find fabrics that match some of the colors that come between them on the color wheel. (Contrast, always a design factor!) For the lowest amount of contrast, analogous color palettes are great for making gradients. The design decisions instead come down to how much contrast you want in your design. When it comes to using analogous colors in design, harmony generally comes for free.

For instance, in the fabrics above, if I’d started moving into the red-orange and oranges, that’s the complement to the navy at the other end of my fabric pull. Which is fine, but it’s no longer technically an analogous color scheme. Analogous colors including Radiant Orchid.Īnalogous color schemes are usually around 2-4 colors because the further you travel around the color wheel, the closer you get to incorporating a complementary tone. In the example color wheel above, I started with Radiant Orchid (the red-violet tone in the middle) and added colors from both sides to create an analogous color scheme. You can choose colors to one side of your starting color, or from both sides.

So what exactly is an analogous color scheme? Start with a color, then choose a color or colors near it on the color wheel. For instance, in the pillow above by Rachel (flickr: wooden spoon), the green stands out from the blues, but not in a strong way like an orange or red-orange would (the complement of aqua.) Instead, there is an overall sense of harmony within the color scheme. Being close on the color wheel means that the colors blend together a bit, which is what creates the sense of harmony. There’s less contrast than a complementary scheme, and more variety than a monochromatic one. Scrappy Spring Sprouts Pillow by Rachel ( wooden spoon on flickr)īack on track! As I noted above, analogous color schemes are great to use when you want a harmonious design. You can always modify from there, but these are great go-to tools for starting to pick your own colors. If you want something more harmonious and calm, start with analogous or a low-contrast monochromatic scheme. If you want to create something bold, start with complementary or a single color monochromatic + neutral scheme. However, complementary/analogous/monochromatic color schemes are great starting points for building a color story. I’m pretty sure you can get any two colors to work together if you add the right supporting color(s). Analogous color schemes use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel – so more colors than monochromatic schemes, but the colors are closer on the color wheel than in complementary schemes.Īs a quick aside, I am realizing that I never explained why color schemes are important to begin with, so let me take this moment to fix that.Īre prescribed color schemes the only way colors work together? No, not at all. If complementary and monochromatic were opposite ends of a spectrum, analogous would nestle quite comfortably between the two of them. We’ve talked about complementary color schemes and monochromatic color schemes, so today I thought we’d cover the last of the major three: analogous color schemes.

Examples of analogous colors