Color Theory - Some Basic Primer

Achromatic schemes are made up of Black and Whites and the various range of neutral grays they produce. You can give achromatics a temperature by adding a small touch of another color.

Monochromatic: If you take a basic hue from the color wheel and use it and only its various tints and shades. The monochromatic scheme is usually a safe bet for pleasabilty factor. However it can often be the fall back scheme for designer and artists that are afraid to play with color.



Analoguos: An analoguous (say that 5 times fast) are three colors that are adjacent (side by side) on the color wheel. These colors are often harmonious and easy on the eye.


Primary:The playground colors. Made famous by such painters such as Mondrian (he rarely if ever used green in work), the Primary scheme is made up of a mixture of the Red, Blue and Yellow and is strong and energetic.

Secondary: The secondary scheme is made up of orange, green and violet. This scheme can aslo be energitic, and fresh.

Tertiary Triad: This ones a bit complicated and hard to conceptualize: but basically there are two schemes of three tertiary colors that are equidistant (Draw a equilateral triangle on the color wheel.) A basic Triadic scheme is when three colors are equidistant on the wheel.

Thank you taking the time to read this tutorial/article, and I hope it helped you in some way.