Exercise 3: Colour Relationships

Colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel have a naturally harmonious relationship and are referred to as complementary.

Due to the fact that the hues vary from light to dark in these relationships we need to look at relative brightness.  For example, orange is twice as bright as blue and yellow three times as bright as violet. 

As a result the following are the ideal proportions for how much colour should occupy the frame.

• Red: Green - 1:1
• Orange: Blue 1:2
• Yellow: Violet 1:3

The first part of this exercise is to produce images based on these ratios.

Red: Green 1:1

Orange: Blue 1:2

Yellow: Violet 1:3

For the second part of the exercise I had to produce 3-4 images using any colour combinations.

Orange: Green 1:2

Orange is close to red and so works well with green and is balanced in these proporations

Blue: Green 1: 3

The blue is the darker colour here and therefore reverses the ideals and upsets the balance.

Violet: Orange 1:2

Although a darker versions of both hues, the combination works surprisingly well.