How to Use the Color Wheel for Any Palette

Referring to a color wheel can help you select just the right color scheme, despite the sometimes intimidating prospect of thousands of colors on swatches, photos, and stores. With a color wheel, you can quickly and easily refer to which colors contrast and complement each other.

The color wheel helps explain color theory, which is the way that colors work together and how they impact human feelings and reaction. It explains how to mix colors successfully, and what the visual impact of those colors is in a room, on a painting, or in any practical use (we're surrounded color everywhere!).

On a color wheel, you can also examine the way primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors work together. It's your guide into the relationships between colors, and the wheel opens up combinations and palettes in an easily accessible form. Use it to inform color palettes in your home, clothing, artwork, and more.

Here you'll learn how to quickly and easily create your color schemes using a color wheel and a few simple color concepts.

Color Terminology 

• Primary colors: Red, yellow, and blue and the primary colors that can be mixed in varying amounts to create multitudes of colors.
• Secondary colors: Green, orange, and violet are secondary colors, which are made by mixing two primary colors.
• Tertiary colors:  When you mix a primary and secondary color, you get a tertiary colors like blue-green, blue-violet, or red-orange.
• Complementary colors: Two colors opposite each other on the color wheel are complementary colors. These are high contrast combinations, like yellow and violet or red and green.
• Monochromatic colors: A monochromatic color scheme is made of several shades of one color.
• Analogous colors: A color scheme that has colors that are next to each other on the color wheel, like red, red-orange, and orange, is analogous.
• Triadic colors: A triadic color scheme is one that forms a triangle on the color wheel, like red, yellow, and blue.
• Tetradic colors: A tertradic color scheme forms a rectangle on the color wheel and usually features striking contrast. For example, orange, yellow, blue, and violet.
• Shades: A shade is a version of a color that has varying amounts of black added.
• Tints: A tint is a version of a color that has varying amounts of white added.
• Tones: A tone is a version of a color that has varying amounts of neutral gray added.
• Hues: Hue is the color family from which all shades, tins, and tones come out of. For example, red, blue, or violet.
  

How to Use the Color Wheel for Color Schemes

You don’t need an extensive color education to create a gorgeous color scheme, but you will need to know about color relationships. Creating a color scheme that is based on color relationships is going to feel and look more harmonious than a scheme created without planning.

• Monochromatic Color Scheme: This is a color scheme of only one color. By using variations of lightness and saturation, you can easily create a stylish scheme that looks professionally designed. Neutral colors are an elegant choice for monochromatic color schemes. To find a monochromatic color scheme on the color wheel, look at one color, like yellow, and look at the other tints, tones, and shades within that same angle of the wheel.
• Complementary Color Scheme: This is a color scheme with two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. This color scheme can be vibrant with high contrast if colors are used in the same saturation. This scheme will naturally include a warm and a cool color, as they're on opposite sides of the wheel.
• Analogous Color Scheme: This is a scheme using three colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. An analogous scheme can be very harmonious and relaxing. A scheme of blue-green, green, and green-yellow is an example of an analogous color scheme. This scheme benefits from having one dominant color with the two remaining colors as accents. Analogous schemes work well with accent walls and other large-scale accents because the colors are naturally harmonious together.
• Triad Color Scheme: This is a scheme with three colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel, forming a triangle. A triad color scheme could include green, violet, and orange, so care must be taken with the saturation of the colors you choose. This is another scheme that benefits from choosing one color to dominate, with the other two as accents.
• Split-Complementary: This is a color scheme that uses three colors. One color is chosen first and then the colors on either side of its complementary color ​are included. Less dramatic than the complementary color scheme, the split-complementary is an easy color scheme to create and live with. This has two colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel, and one directly across.
• Tetradic Color Scheme: This is a scheme using two sets of complementary colors. Having four colors to work with can be more challenging, but it can also produce a full and rich color scheme. Using a dominant color with three accent colors is one way to harmonize a tetradic color scheme. The other way to create a pleasant tetradic scheme is to use muted tones of the four colors. Any complementary scheme will contain warm and cool colors and requires special care balancing the two. These colors form a rectangle on the color wheel.

If you find a color wheel that illustrates color relationships, you can easily experiment with all of these color schemes to find the perfect one. Once your color scheme is decided, the fun begins as you create a palette of your desired colors.

Warm Colors vs. Cool Colors 

Warm colors are typically colors like red, yellow, and orange, while cool colors are blue, green, and violet, but there are nuances that lead to cool reds and warm greens. For example, a rich olive green could have more yellow in it, making it a warm green, while a violet-tinged magenta red could have more blue in it, making it a cool red.

To determine if a color is warm or cool, look at whether its color undertones lean towards yellow or blue. If it's yellow, it's warm. If it's blue, it's cool.

Color Schemes vs. Palettes 

The phrases "color scheme" and "color palette" seem to be used interchangeably, but they're different.

• A color scheme is used to describe the framework of how the colors are chosen and put together. A color scheme is based on color theory, like a monochromatic scheme.
• A color palette refers to the actual colors that you’ve chosen, based on your color scheme. So if you chose a complementary color scheme, the color palette would include colors by name or by paint color. It’s more specific to your project.

Once you learn a few basic color scheme techniques, you can choose a color that expresses your taste and vision.

If you want to dive into creating color schemes easily, then a small, inexpensive color wheel is going to be your best ally. Look for a color wheel that shows color relationships on the back. Being able to reference how the colors relate to one another makes choosing color simpler.