Color Concept

Color Harmony

In visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. Harmony engages the

viewer and it creates an inner sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. The human

brain will reject under-stimulating information. The human brain rejects what it cannot organize,

what it cannot understand. The visual task requires that we present a logical structure.

Successful color relationships can be referred to as “Color

Harmonies.”

Color harmony delivers visual interest and a sense of order.The most

closely associated color way of harmony is analogous.

An analagous color harmony uses colors which are side-by-side on the color wheel. (Usually

between 3 and 5 colors). When they are used together, they produce very little contrast. This

minimal contrast and smooth transition between colors tends to produce images with a certain

sense of serenity and comfort.

There are three main types of analagous color harmonies:

1) Warm analogous

2) Cool analogous

3) Analogous including both warm and cool colors

Nina Graschenko’s painting

Sandy skoglund.The Cocktail Party, photography and Installation, 1992

Robert proch, Acrylic on canvas

Gustav Klimt, The Sunflower, oil on canvas1906-07

Paul Klee: Rose Garden, 1920

In the following picture of Paul Klee, red and red-violet are predominantly marking the role of

the painting. To a lesser extent we find a red-orange and a neutral green. This is therefore a

painting based on creating a harmony of analogous colors around the red-violet.

Although red is a warm color in this case has a slight tendency to coldness by the

abundance of violets that are displayed on a high degree of saturation. As for the light, there are

a variety of values, dark, light and media. Klee also plays with different types of saturation.

The use of small patches of green that is the complement of red adds a touch of

contrasting color that animates the composition without removing it from its harmonic effect.

While responding to a classical scheme of color harmony, in my opinion is a bold composition

because it is in the border area of warm and cold colors creating tension between the red-

violet and red-orange.

Still photograph of a live performance. Turrel used an analogous color scheme of red-violet, violet and

blue-violet. These hues created a cool dark mood in his performance piece.

James Turrell. To be Sung, 1994.

The analogous color scheme uses colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. One color is

used as a dominant color while others are used to enrich the scheme. The analogous scheme is similar

This issue of Print, a design magazine, is to the monochromatic one, but offers more nuances.

illustrative of the usage of analogous colors as it incorporates several shades of purple and blue to create

a pleasing and eye-catching color arrangement.

Sandy Skoglund. Revenge of the Goldfish, Photography and Installation, 1981

Andre Derain. Le Port de Peche, 1905

Derain shows a clear pattern as the pair of complementary colors blue and orange

occupies large areas and do so in a high degree of saturation. Actually the palette ranges

from orange red to blue, through yellow and green. All these colors are together on the color

wheel, but they extend up to the complementary colors and have such a high degree of

saturation that we can say that this is a complementary scheme rather than a harmony of

analogous colors.

Vanishing Boundaries

If two hues are very similar to each other in value and saturation, they will have a dramatic

visual impact and interaction with each other. Where the two hues meet, the line or boundary

between them appears to vanish.

Josef Albers

To eliminate visual blending:

Simply change one of the colors, and make either darker or lighter than the other hue, oradjust the saturation.

In either case, object is to create the higher level of contrast, thereby eliminating theeffect.

Contrast vs Harmony Colors

Corey Day, acrylic on canvas, spring 2011 Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Girl With A Watering Can, Oil on canvas, 100 × 73 cm, 1876