Color Combination Theories
Hey Everyone! Dacia here with your Theory Thursday (and a mini-challenge)! This is my first entry on the official ScrapMatters blog, so hopefully I’ll be able to teach you something helpful and fun to use on future layouts (and not bore you in the process!)
I wanted to talk about Color Theory. I am a HUGE fan of color and thought it would be fun to share some of the tried-and-true color theories/combinations.
Have you ever looked at the colors on a scrapbook page and just thought “Wow, that works!” or “Whoops…that doesn’t work.” Well, there is a method to the color madness and the colors you choose will make a difference in the mood or emotions you’re trying to express.
Let’s begin with a basic color wheel. The primary (base) colors are red, yellow and blue. By mixing 2 of your primary colors you get your secondary colors, orange, green, and purple. Then to make it even more complicated, we’ll add the tertiary colors, which you get by mixing a primary color with a neighboring secondary color. As far as black and white go–they are on the value scale. The farther from the center you get, the more white is in a color, or the lighter it is (like a pastel yellow would towards the outside of the circle). The closer you get to tht center of the circle, the more black gets added, or the darker it gets (like a navy blue or brown-which is a relative of orange).
So with that foundation, let me share some of my favorite color combinations that I think everyone should know.
Monochromatic Colors. A monochromatic color scheme uses one color, but 3 different shades of that color. Example: Light, Medium, and Dark Blue.
Triadic Colors. A triadic color combination comes from using 3 colors that are equally spaced (3 spaces) apart on the color wheel. This could be purple, green and orange or it could be blue, yellow and red etc.
Analogous Colors. You get an analogous grouping when you use three colors that are all next to each other on the color wheel. For example, blue, teal and green or green, yellow-green and yellow etc. This example was done using blue, green and teal-all colors next to each other on the color wheel.
The above example is another analagous color combination – green, light green and yellow – done by Stacy (shutch) I think those colors look so great with her sepia toned photo!
Complementary Colors. Here is another analagous color combination done by Kristie (krisser12). She used blue, green and yellow. She skipped every other color on the cool wheel, which is just another variation of analagous. The colors look great with her black and white photo and all the squares.
Next are Complementary colors, which use different shades across from each other on the color wheel, such as red and green, or yellow and purple or blue and orange (like this example using Britt-ish Designs Dreams Do come true kit).
Split-Complementary Colors: This is a grouping of colors that uses a color and it’s complement’s neighbors. So instead of using red and green, you would use red and yellow-green and teal. This example was done using Ellie Lash’s Ladybug Picnic kit- blue, green and red-orange.
Note* Here is another helpful tip for color combinations that consist of three colors: The 60-30-10 rule. Choose a dominant color and use it for 60% of your layout. Then pick your 2nd color (not necessarily a “secondary” color) and use it for 30% of the layout. Lastly, choose your 3rd color (your accent color) and use it for the remaining 10% of your layout. It helps keep things on your layout more balanced.
Hope that helps and wasn’t too long and boring. Try joining in on the mini-challenge by making a page or two using one of the color combinations. Submit your entries in the gallery, describing how you chose your colors and leave your link in the comments here on the blog. Next week I’ll pick my favorite and also randomly choose a winner to receive one of Britt-ish Designs fabulous kits! Good luck and happy Scrapping!
March 20th, 2008 at 6:25 am
GREAT Article! I’m going to save it to my PC so that I can refer to it often . I LOVE these LO’s for your examples.
Thanks so much for teaching me about color!
March 20th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Awesome article! I’ve read a few things on the web about color theory, but nothing that was so concise, and definitely nothing with digi scrap examples. Thank you! And thanks for the tip about the 60-30-10 rule–it will definitely help in designing. Thanks for sharing!
March 20th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Thank you very much !! These color weel will be very helpful !
March 20th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Awesome article Dacia!! Here’s my LO: http://scrapmatters.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-2237
I did a complimentary LO with blue and orange!!
March 20th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Terrific article Dacia! Loved it and the examples were so well done. Awesome all around!
March 25th, 2008 at 12:07 am
[...] combination and an example of the 60-30-10 rule (see last Thursday’s Color Theory Post here). Look how it combines beautifully. Wish we had blossoms [...]
March 27th, 2008 at 6:47 am
such great info – i love playing with colors!
here’s a monotone one i did
and here’s my try at the 60-30-10 rule
love all the samples everyone did too!
March 27th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
This is great info. It really made me think. I love this photo of my daughter and while I used the same coloring to match her outfit, I never would have dreamed to use the contrasting colors with it. And I really like the outcome. Here is my LO using the triadic color scheme of orange, green and purple.
http://scrapmatters.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=10616&pos=0
Thanks!
March 30th, 2008 at 7:17 am
I loved the info on this! I haven’t ever been good with color so this was awesome! Thanks for the info…here’s mine:
http://scrapmatters.com/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_Prince-Sawyer.jpg
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
I goofed on the link to my traidic color scheme LO. Here is the correct link:
http://scrapmatters.com/gallery/albums/userpics/normal_kara_broomupgrade_web.jpg
Thanks for letting me play along!
May 4th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Hey, just wanted to say thanks on the color theory explanation. Now I understand what the terms mean and I can definitely see the difference it makes. I think the best part of the article was how you used the same LOs with different color schemes to show what a difference it made. Thanks again!
July 16th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Here is the link to my layout I chose to do a Triadac with Pink, Green and Yellow/Orange.
http://scrapmatters.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0
It was so much fun to read this article and expand more.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:53 am
Thanks for this article.
January 20th, 2009 at 7:12 am
thnks for the help.
April 5th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Hi,
I found your article about colors and found it very applicable to quilting. I was wondering if I could use some of your information for a quilt guild presentation on color? I would only be using it one time.
Thank you!
September 3rd, 2011 at 6:22 pm
organizational theory…
[...]Color Combination Theories | ScrapMatters Blog[...]…
November 21st, 2012 at 4:09 am
Thankyou I have been struggling with color combinations for a while now!This was very helpful.;) Happy Thanksgiving!!