Complementary Colours: Contrast Without the Clash

Blue beside orange, red beside green, yellow beside purple. Complementary pairs are among the most powerful tools in a painter's kit, because they sit opposite each other on the colour wheel and give maximum hue contrast. Used well, they make a picture sparkle. Used carelessly, they can look garish and hard on the eye. The difference usually has less to do with the colours themselves than with how much, where and in what strength you use them.

What complementary colours do

When two complementary colours sit side by side, each makes the other look more intense. A small orange boat on blue water looks brighter than it would on a green field. This effect, called simultaneous contrast, is the reason complementary schemes feel so lively. At the same time, mixing a pair together produces a neutral, so they have a double role: contrast when placed beside each other, and calm when blended.

Start with proportion

The simplest way to avoid a clash is to make the colours unequal. A common guideline is to let one colour dominate and use its complement as a small accent. A landscape in mostly cool blue-greens with a touch of red-orange in a rooftop or a figure's jacket will feel balanced, because the eye is drawn to the accent without being overwhelmed. If the two colours occupy equal areas at full strength, they compete and the picture can feel restless.

Adjust saturation

Complementary pairs do not both have to be at full strength. A saturated orange against a soft, greyed blue feels quite different from the same orange against a pure, vivid blue. Try muting one half of the pair, either by adding a little of its complement or a touch of grey. You can keep the vibrancy of the contrast while reducing the harshness. Our guide to mixing natural greys explains how to do this neatly without losing life from the colour.

Use value to keep the peace

Value, which is how light or dark a colour is, matters as much as hue. Two complementary colours of the same value, such as a mid red and a mid green, can vibrate at the edges in an uncomfortable way. Shifting one lighter or darker calms things. A pale yellow against a deep violet, for example, has both hue contrast and value contrast, so it reads clearly and comfortably.

Think in terms of temperature

Many complementary pairs are also a warm and a cool colour, which makes them useful for describing light. A sunlit area in warm yellow-orange with a cool violet-blue shadow is a complementary scheme that appears natural, because that is how light behaves in the real world. If you want to explore that idea further, our article on warm and cool colours shows how temperature supports depth and atmosphere.

A simple exercise

1. Choose one pair, such as blue and orange.
2. Paint a small square of the pair at full strength, side by side, and look at the edge where they meet.
3. Paint a second square with one colour dominating and the other as a small patch.
4. Paint a third in which both are slightly greyed.
5. Compare the three and note which feels harmonious.

Beyond the basic pairs

You can also try split complements, in which one colour is paired with the two colours either side of its opposite, such as blue with yellow-orange and red-orange. This gives some of the contrast of a complementary scheme with more variety and a little less tension.

Frequently asked questions

Do complementary colours always look good together? Not automatically. Their success depends on proportion, value and saturation, which you control.

Are red and green a bad combination? No, though they are often similar in value, which can cause vibrating edges. Adjusting the value of one of them usually fixes the problem.

Do I need to use the traditional colour wheel? It is a helpful guide, but painters' primaries do not always match it exactly. Test your own paints and trust what you see.