Complementary Color

Complementary Color

When describing 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 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

Below are some examples of paintings which use complementary colors. Vincent van Gogh used Red and Green as complementary colors. In addition, he made use of Yellow and Violet complementary colors in the painting below. 

Vincent van Gogh, The Night Café, 1888

 Edvard Munch used yellow-orange and blue-violet in his famous painting. 

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893

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