For the longest time, I was perplexed by the term complementary color in relation to contrast and color mixing. When I read articles or view content on social media, I see other artists using it interchangeably as well. They will use the term complement to explain color contrast and the neutral colors you get when mixing hues. This usually leads to more confusion, which is apparent in the comments section. Are they wrong, and why does it matter?
It matters in how the colors themselves are used and the result of that use. The principles of color science can be of great use to artists and designers if properly understood. In many art education textbooks, Complementary is used to describe hues that enhance each other as well as hues that, when mixed, result in a grayed hue. While it may seem easier to use one word to describe both, some people find it more complicated. However, a book from 1839 and another from 1923 took a different approach to colors that specifically enhance each other.
What Is Color Contrast?
While it may seem that contrasting colors and complementary colors are the same, the difference lies in their actions and how we perceive them. This is why there are two distinct terms to describe this action or effect, and in my opinion, they are not interchangeable concerning color mixing. Henry Barrett Carpenter wrote:
Contrasting colours are here understood to mean those which, when placed side by side, intensify each other but do not change. Colours which are not contrasts do tend to change their appearance when placed side by side. Thus, red placed side by side with yellow appears more rosy, while the yellow looks more inclined towards green than when seen alone. But if red be placed by purple, the former will appear more orange and the latter more violet.
When I first encountered this explanation of color contrast in Carpenter’s 1923 book, Suggestions for the Study of Colour, it finally clicked and opened my eyes to a better way of viewing the interaction of different hues. It gave me the “Ah-ha!” moment I had been searching for all those years. The phenomenon of color contrast is something we all see on a daily basis. It’s not just about pairing eye-catching hues in art design; it also ties directly into our depth perception.
Simultaneous Contrast
First defined by French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul in 1839, in his book The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours (De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs), Simultaneous Contrast is the optical phenomenon in which we perceive a hue, depending on the colors that surround it. The effect occurs because the human eye and mind constantly compare adjacent tones and look for color opposites. Some colors appear brighter, deeper, closer, or farther away.
So, in paintings or other art designs, knowing which colors enhance each other is key. It can help you add or lessen depth or brightness in specific areas. Artist Liam, who goes by Museum Liam online, demonstrates in the video clip below how you can add brightness to an area of a painting by using a tinted contrasting color instead of white:
While he refers to them as complementary colors, he is really talking about and demonstrating Contrast. Have you tried this before? Let me know in the comments.
Another great little piece of information I came across in color research is this from the book, The Theory and Practice of Color:
These leading Colors have different relationships to each other, just as a verb in a sentence has a certain relationship to a noun and another relationship to an adverb… The three Binaries (secondary colors), orange, green, and violet, are each made by combining equal portions of two Primaries. Orange for example, is made up of equal parts of yellow and red. In orange, therefore, one of the elements of color is lacking— the element of blue. Blue is the one thing needed by orange to complete the Color circuit. Again, violet is made up of equal parts of red and blue. The color element lacking in violet is yellow. Therefore violet and yellow are Complementary to each other. Green being made of a combination of equal parts blue and yellow, needs red to complete the circuit. Therefore in these pigment combinations, red and green are Complementary to each other.
Now, before you come for me in the comments section about cyan, magenta, and yellow being the “true primaries”, all you have to do is swap out RYB for CMY, and the above information still holds. Colors opposite also complete each other. Notice, they are using the term Complementary to describe Contrast.
In this same book, authors Snow and Froehlich also go on to say:
Complementary colors are in the strongest possible contrast to each other. You can’t think of a Color more different from orange than blue. They have nothing in common. They are as unlike as it is possible for Colors to be. Yet they have this peculiar power to enhance or enrich each other, when placed near together.
Again, there’s that word Complementary… Of course, now we know the answer to this peculiarity lies in the triad of Primary Colors used to create the Binary (Secondary) hues, while seemingly opposite, complete one another as already stated above.
It’s also worth noting that there is usually a difference in depth and brightness (chroma) between the hues as well, which contributes to some colors appearing to advance or recede when near one another.
True Contrasting Colors
As our knowledge of color has expanded over the centuries, so have color charts and color wheels. We not only know that colors follow a natural order, but this expansion has led to corrections in the alignment of the contrasting colors.
It is again to Rood that we owe the table of true contrasts. By measuring the proportion of each colour in the spectrum, and by dividing a circle in the same proportion, Rood produced his colour circle. He claimed that by taking the tints (hues) in pairs as they stood opposite one another round the circle, a series of true contrasts would be produced. Careful trial will show how right he was. When his table is compared with the old three-colour table, with its complementaries, one might fancy at first glance that the difference was not so very great, but the difference is just enough to ruin a great many colour schemes. Orange-yellow is not so far removed from orange, but it does just supply the perfect contrast to a central blue, which full orange just misses. The most notable difference is probably that which occurs in the case of red and green-blue instead of red and green. – Henry Barrett Carpenter, Suggestions for the Study of Colour (1923)
By green-blue, he means cyan or turquoise blue. Below is a chart depicting Ogden Rood’s Table of True Contrasts, expanded based on more up-to-date color science (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow):
As you can see in the above chart, Green is actually opposite Magenta, while Red is now opposite Aqua-Green.
Color Contrast in Nature
As I mentioned earlier, we see contrasting colors in our surrounding environment daily. They exist in sunrises and sunsets; in flowers; and in fruits and vegetables.
You can also find contrasting colors in humans:
As seen above, a boy with orange-red hair and turquoise-blue eyes; a young woman with golden-blonde hair and blue-violet eyes; and a man with green eyes and auburn or reddish-brown hair (the red tones may be quite neutralized, but they are still there).
What Are Complementary Colors?
Like contrasting colors, if we look at the definitions of the word Complement as it is used in relation to color, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, it is defined as:
Complementary means combining in a way that enhances or completes each other, making a good, balanced whole. It describes things that supply what is missing in one another. It is different from complimentary, which means free of charge or expressing praise.
Cambridge Dictionary defines it as: Useful or attractive together.
BUT, it is also defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as relating to or constituting one of a pair of contrasting colors that produce a neutral color when combined in suitable proportions.
This is also mentioned in that same chapter from The Theory and Practice of Color:
Though when placed near together, Complementary Colors possess the power of enriching each other, in mixture, the effect of their combination is just the opposite.
So, why are we also referring to colors that mute, desaturate, or rather neutralize each other as Complements? The truth is most words in the English language have multiple definitions.
Better Color Mixtures?
Mixing complementary pigments in place of gray (black + white) usually produces more full-bodied neutrals with greater depth and less chalkiness. You can even combine certain hues to create rich, chromatic blacks. French Impressionists Georges Seurat and Claude Monet are known for mixing their own chromatic dark paint hues and never using black paint on their palettes.
Is Complementary an Incorrect Term?
Technically, no. It is a standardized term in the art world. However, I find it helps others if I use Contrasting when referring to colors that are near each other and Complementary when referring to hues that I am mixing. Is it perfect or ideal? Not really. When I do this and show lots of visual examples, it helps clarify which is which. But what if we came up with a better term for when the opposite colors are mixed? Something like Ashening?
Best Ways to Use Contrast
Complementary describes hues that both enhance and neutralize each other when mixed. Contrast refers to the action of colors enriching each other when they are near or surround one another.
- Use Contrast strategically to enhance depth or draw attention to a specific area.
- In color mixing, mute or neutralize your main hue by adding in some of its Complement instead of gray. This will produce richer, more dimensional neutral hues than simply adding white and black.
If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! I hope you learned something new. Let me know what you think! But let’s keep it civil. I know some of these topics can be quite polarizing. Haha!
