Analogous colours, lesson and worksheet, grade 6 to 10.

Analogous Colours

An analogous colour scheme/group makes everything seem the same colour at first until approached. In general there are 3 colours in a group. Together, they create a smooth passage and bring harmony to your artwork.

There are two ways of realising a passage when colouring or painting. You can use monochromatic colours (shades/ tones of the same colour) or analogous colours. Analogous colours are used by makeup artists, interior, product, graphic, fashion, and flower designers as well.

Analogous colours are colours that are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel, with one being the dominant colour. The dominant colour can be either primary, or secondary.

Orange, yellow-orange and yellow is a group of analogous colours. The dominant colour in this group is yellow, because orange and orange-yellow contain yellow. They are blended nicely in “Sunflowers”, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh.

 To make a group of analogous colours, pick one colour, and then go either to the right or to the left of the colour wheel, to choose the other 2 colours. Imagine the colour wheel as a clock. Number 12 is yellow and number six is violet. For the best results make sure you have in your group a primary colour, a secondary colour and a tertiary colour.

A tertiary color is a colour made by mixing one primary color with a secondary color (red-orange, yellow-green, blue-violet, etc)

Analogous groups of colours are best used with either warm or cool colours.

Your group can also contain a warm colour and two cool colours. It cannot contain two warm colours and one cool colour.

                          

Possible groups of analogous colours when going to the right on the colour wheel:

yellow, yellow-orange, orange ( all three colours are warm colours, the dominant is yellow)

	the dominant colour

Orange, red orange, red (all three colours are _________ colours, the dominant is ___________ )

	the dominant colour

 

Red, red-violet, violet (one colour is ________, the other two are _______. The dominant is ___________)

	the dominant colour

Violet, blue-violet, blue (all three colours are ________, the dominant is _________)

	the dominant colour

Blue, blue-green, green (all three colours are ______, the dominant is ___________)

	the dominant colour

Green, yellow-green, yellow (one colour is ________, the other two are _______. The dominant is ________)

	the dominant colour

You are going to have the same results if going to the left on the colour wheel. Try it!

You cannot go to the left and to the right of your chosen colour. If you do, you will have two warm colours and one cool colour in your group.

For example, yellow, yellow-green and orange is an incorrect analogous colour scheme. Yellow –green flows from yellow. They are part of the same family, but yellow-orange contains red, so it is not related to the first two colours of your group.

There can also be 4 colours in a group of analogous colours. The pattern to follow when making a group of 4 analogous colours is: primary colour, tertiary colour, secondary colour and tertiary colour. All your four colours should be either warm, or cool. You can also have one warm colour and three cool.

Examples:

yellow, yellow-green, green and blue-green. (the dominant colour in this group is blue)

blue, blue-violet, violet, red-violet ( the dominant colour in this group is blue)

red, red-orange, orange, yellow- orange ( the dominant colour in this group is red)