Complimentary Color vs. Complementary Color

After reading many discussion posts through the years, I repeatedly see the word "flow" for describing art. Flow is not a visual element or design principle, and it isn't the best term to repeatedly describe works of art. Can the term "flow" be better described using actual terminology from the reading/viewing? I suggest using a term like "implied motion".

The last thing I often notice is the use of "complimentary color". Please note that "complimentary" is different from the term "complementary". A compliment is a greeting or praise. "Hello there, you certainly are wearing a nice blue hat," is a compliment.

"Complementary" is the correct term for describing color. If you look at the color wheel below you will see that orange is the complement of blue.

Colors directly across from each other on the color wheel are complementary colors. Below is a list of the complementary colors...

• Yellow and violet
• Orange and blue
• Red and green
• Yellow orange and blue violet
• Blue green and red orange
• Yellow green and red violet

Chris Gildow, The Color Wheel

 "Complimentary vs. Complementary" by Tobe Harvey is licensed under CC BY 4.0 Links to an external site.