How to Use Colour to Create Visual Harmony in Art
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What images come to your mind when you hear the word “harmony”?
A mirror-like surface of the lake
A panoramic view from a mountain top
Mandala patterns
A person meditating
If option 1 or 2 resonates with you, then for you, harmony is a natural phenomenon. If instead, you chose 3 or 4, then you view it as a state of mind. Either way, you see it as a synonym to calm and peace. However, harmony in art is more diverse than that.
Harmony is an underlying principle that helps an artwork come together as a whole. It’s a state that can be hard to clearly define. However, we feel harmony’s presence even if we can’t say what contributes to it.
There’s no one universal way to achieve harmony, rather a variety of approaches that can help you. This post covers only those techniques that rely on colour to create visual balance.
Through the ages, artists explored harmony and looked for different ways to create it. We’ll start with probably the easiest approach to visual balance – analogous colour scheme.
1. Analogous colour scheme
Analogous colour scheme consists of 3 hues, which are next to each on a colour wheel.
You choose one colour as a center point and then take one to its left and one to its right. Because the colour values are so close to each other, they make the artwork look cohesive, creating harmony.
For instance, take Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh. Yellow is the main colour accompanied by orange and green.
Another example is Water Lilies by Claude Monet. He chose blue-violet as a core colour with teal and fuchsia. This trio creates a base for the painting with all other hues being their variations.
Despite this reliable approach to creating harmony, artists always look for new ways.
2. Monochrome colour scheme
Similar to analogous colour scheme is a monochrome one. It has even less variety of colours, exploring nuances of the core colour.
Take, for instance, this rusty brown painting by J. M. W. Turner. The colour varies so slightly that the main contrast comes from tones. It’s like an old brown photograph, and only slight hints of blue in the sky tell us otherwise.
Monochrome paintings are not necessarily brown, they can be any colour like this exploration of warm reds in Red Sunset on the Dnieper by Arkhip Kuindzhi. Despite red being an intense colour, it doesn’t look aggressive in this painting. Because of the abundance of dark tones, it feels warm and even calming somehow.
Another example is this blue canvas by Monet. It borders in between analogous and monochrome: dark teal colours blend with muted lavender tones. However, it’s the overall feel of the painting that makes me catagorise it as a monochrome one: it feels blue-violet.
3. Complementary colour scheme
When you look at Irises by Vincent Van Gogh, you realise that this time his approach was different from the sunflowers above. His tool of choice was a complementary colour scheme.
Complimentary colours are the ones opposite each other on the colour wheel. They enhance one another and always look good together.
In this painting, the golden yellow background is complementary to the blue colour of the petals. Together they look more vibrant and alive.
Compare this effect to another painting of irises by Van Gogh, which is in an analogous colour scheme. The later work of art doesn’t feel as vibrant and lively as the first one.
4. Light or dark key
Instead of using the full range of tones, artists can shift to either high key (mainly light tones) or low key (mainly dark tones).
Light key makes a painting look soft and airy, like this masterpiece by J. M. W. Turner. You can feel the lightness and spaciousness of the piece.
Low key, instead, makes a painting look more solid and dramatic. It gives a heavier feeling to the art piece, like the above mentioned Red Sunset on the Dnieper by Arkhip Kuindzhi. Another of his works Evening in Ukraine is also created using mainly dark tones with a few light and middle ones to create illumination. And again, Kuindzhi uses 2 approaches to enhance the visual harmony of his painting. This time he uses complementary colours by juxtaposing crimson on the roof and the ground with turquoise in the shadows.
5. One dominant colour
This approach to harmony results in the most versatile range of paintings.
One dominant colour takes a large part of the canvas. All other hues are used sparingly, allowing artists to use as many additional paints as they want.
Look at The Umbrellas by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. If you squint your eyes, it appears all blue. However, when you look closely, it’s teeming with colour: sunny ginger and gentle pink, leafy green and cool teal, golden yellow and deep brown. However, the abundance of blue brings the masterpiece together, making it harmonious.
While Renoir’s painting has myriads of hues, a work of art by Henri Matisse is nothing close to that. He understood so well what he was creating that even the name says it – The Dessert: Harmony in Red. Vibrant and exuberant, this variety of colours is united by a dominant fuchsia red.
Another example of using one dominant colour to create harmony is Jeanne Samary in a Low-Necked Dress portrait by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It seems as if we look at the painting through a pink glass. This is the same effect that is achieved by using photo filters. It ties everything visually together by shifting all the hues in the same direction.
6. Very limited colour palette
While other approaches use something in common to create harmony like similarity of tones or connection between colours, this way is more tricky. Selected hues can stand wide apart and still work well together. Take, for instance, Piet Mondrian’s masterpieces. Time and time again, he makes primary colours look harmonious. What is his secret?
limited colour palette
a precise balance of the amount of colour juxtaposed against neutrals
Though he uses bright hues, Mondrian limits his palette only to 5-6 colours: red, yellow, blue, white, black, and sometimes grey with no gradation or variation of colour. Because of that restriction, the end result looks sophisticated and harmonious.
By considerably limiting your colour palette you can make even the most vibrant and diverse colours like primary work well together, creating a cohesive story.
7. Repetition of background colours in the main subject
What sets this approach apart is that it doesn’t focus on the colour scheme but on the positioning of colours.
By using background hues on your subject, you tie the whole piece together.
This connection can be subtle or more evident, depending on the number of colours in common. It can be just a couple of strokes, or the subject can nearly morph into the surroundings.
Let’s start with Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait. The deep rusty brown on her cheeks echoes in the shadows on the leaves, while golden yellow tones of her skin can be found in the foliage to the right of her. This repetition of colours brings the whole painting together.
When you look at the girl’s portrait by Claude Monet below, the connection between her and the environment is greater. Her hair is the same maroon as the foliage in the background, and the pinks of her dress are also used for the ground. However, the character is still distinct from her surroundings.
It’s in the painting below by Vincent van Gogh, that the subject nearly morphs into the environment. The same yellows, oranges, and blues are used for both the character and his surroundings. The subject is only slightly darker than the rest of the painting.
As you can see, some examples I’ve chosen fall in between two approaches or unite them. For example, you can consider Renoir’s portrait of Jeanne Samary, an extreme example of background colours repeating in the main subject. As for paintings by Arkhip Kuindzhi, in both cases, he used a combination of approaches to harmonise his works.
So the boundaries are not rigidly set. I gathered these 7 approaches for you as guidance. Feel free to interpret them your way. I’m sure this list is far from being complete. By exploring harmony further, you can discover something new. Use these approaches as a starting point to confidently go further.
Which of these approaches feel the most relevant to your work?
P.S. Is there any painting you find harmonious but doesn’t fall in any of the categories I’ve described? Please, let me know in a comment below, and I’ll analyse it for you.
Keep creating!
Yours,
Tatiana
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Hello!
My name is Tatiana Kuvaldina.
I am a colour expert.
My purpose is to help creatives like you to build their confidence one colour exercise at a time.
Let’s talk more on Instagram
Find me @tkuva_illustrates
