6 Tricks in Choosing Great Color Combinations

So you've decided to mosaic a piece and you either go on-line or to your local store to buy tiles. Suddenly, you realise that you're confronted with hundreds of colour choices and the colour options and combinations are endless. It's a little bit daunting, isn't it?

Great artists are experts at colour. Colour reflects mood, energy and maturity. This article is going to take you through 6 tricks that professionals designers use when choosing colour combinations.

Please note that when you are dealing with computer monitors, the colour breakdown is made up of RGB (which is red, green and blue). When dealing with paint and physical objects, the colour breakdown is Red, Blue and Yellow.

When you mix white with a pure colour, you produce a tint and when you mix black with a pure colour you produce a tone.

Firstly, lets understand the colour wheel and how it works:

Red, yellow and blue are your primary colours and cannot be made by mixing 2 colours together.

Your secondary colours are created by mixing primary colours together, i.e.:
Blue+Yellow=Green
Yellow+Red=Orange
Blue+Red=Purple

The rest of the colour wheel is created by mixing differing quantities of colour to produce the next colour, e.g. yellow-green.

Creating colour harmony can be achieved in 6 different ways:

1. The first is using complimentary colours. Every colour has it's opposite, and if you use the 2 colours together, they will “vibrate” next to one another and create a dynamic colour effect.

Basic complimentary colours are:
Yellow and Purple
Green and Red
Orange and Blue




2. Analogous colours are colours that sit close together on the colour wheel. E.g orange, red and violet, this produces a unified yet dynamic composition.


















3. Monochromatic Colours are tints and tones of 1 colour. E.g. bright blue, pale blue and dark blue. This produces a very soothing or balanced effect.






4. Split Complementary Colours are made up of a colour and the colour next to its direct complimentary. This is a far more subtle way of producing contrasting and dynamic effects.


















5. Triadic Colours are colours that form an equilateral triangle on the colour wheel. These then form triadic colour harmonies. The harmonies are vibrant but balanced and extremely pleasing to the eye.










6. Tetradic Colours are a set of colours that form a rectangle on the colour wheel. This harmony is the richest of all colour schemes and provides the greatest variety in colour schemes. The tetradic colour harmony is made up of 2 sets of complimentary colours so it can become quite difficult to work with.











So when designing your next project and you're confronted with so many colour choices, narrow it down to the kind of feeling you want to convey, then use one of the colour harmonies above to convey your message!

More resources
www.colormatters.com
www.wikipedia.org
www.tigercolor.com
www.colorcube.com

I'm busy working on a large mural at the moment. This pattern is taking a while, but I do promise it's a fantastic project.

If anyone would like to send me some pictures for the gallery, has any questions or would like to unsubscribe, please e-mail me at kirsty@mosaicpatternsonline.com

Have a great week-end
Kirsty Fletcher

www.mosaicpatternsonline.com