Learn About The Colour Wheel

Feather Charm

24 minutes ago

5 min read

Hello Everyone!

One of the biggest factors in my designs, crafts and art is colour. I don’t know about you, but to me, life is colourful, and one of the best ways to show emotion or to perceive something, is through colour. I mean, it’s even in our language. For example, when we say we’re “sad”, we sometimes say, “I feel blue” and if we’re trying to save the environment, we’re “going green”. Need I say more?

In truth, it’s an unspoken part of our psychology and subconsciousness. We use colour in everything, and understanding how it works, helps with so many different aspects of our creative endeavours, like arts and crafts or even design. So, here are 4 things we should all know about, if we want to make our crafts stand out.

1. Use Opposition Colours

In a colour wheel, you have something called opposition colours, which means the colours that stand opposite each other, like red and green, or yellow and purple, or even blue and orange. I don’t know about you, but when I see these colours together, they do evoke a sense of harmony and balance. Of course, I also associate them with different things, like, of course, red and green are the colours of Christmas, and they evoke that sense of celebration. Purple and yellow give off that majestic, royalty vibe, and the blue and orange, for some reason, give me a calming sense of the sea and wandering along beaches (I was writing this post in the middle of summer, and I’d just posted the Fisherman’s Beach Cottage video, so it makes sense to me).

Now, when do you use opposition colours? If you’re trying to create a sense of harmony in something, use opposition colours. What I mean is, sometimes, a piece, especially an art piece, can look too one dimensional, if you use just one colour palette. Essentially, if you use lighter and darker shades of a colour, your piece can look a bit bland and uninteresting (unless you’re creating a statement with the piece). So, you need to pair it with an opposition colour, to truly enhance the look you’re going for. By adding an opposition colour, you’re muting the vibrance of your piece, and adding a little more dimension to it, by introducing that contrast.

2. Use Analogous Colours

Ok, so this is the opposite of what I talk about in the first point here. This time, I’m telling you to use analogous colours, meaning the colours that are next to each other, like for yellow, use red and orange, for blue, use purple and green, or for red use purple and orange. Analogous colours are great for creating a vibe or atmosphere. It’s also great for gradients, like if you’re making a flame, you usually see yellow, red and orange together. If you’re going for a deep ocean vibe, you’re probably thinking of those blues, greens and purples, and if you’re looking to create a warm forest look, you’re probably going to go with the greens and yellows and orange colours.

Using analogous colours sets the mood, it’s why they go so well together as well. It creates the overall mood of a piece and adds vibrancy to it. So, while opposition colours mute and harmonise a piece, analogous colours add vibrancy. So, the next time you design something, or craft something, using colours, try to add vibrancy using analogous colours, and if you want to tone it down a little, use at least one opposition colour, to help harmonise the piece.

3. Shade With Opposition

I didn’t know about this, or if I did, I’d forgotten it (my last art class was about 12 years ago). When you shade something, and we’re talking specifically about art this time, not physical crafts, use opposition colours. While using analogous colours is what we’re taught, and what we expect to use, sometimes, that doesn’t really bring out the realism in the pieces we’re making. In fact, sometimes, using analogous colours can make the piece look more cartoonish than real. That’s why, you should try using opposition colours to shade your piece.

I have been shading using analogous colours all my life, because that’s what I was taught to do. In fact, it’s what I had expected, whenever I tried to use colour in my pieces. It was only recently did I understand that using opposition colours helps to create that darker shade, because it mutes the colour and creates that depth that analogous colours can’t quite capture. Now, I’m experimenting with opposition shading (as I’m calling it, I’m not sure if it’s an actual term, but hey, we’re going with it), and it’s blowing my mind. I’m never going back to analogous shading again...well, maybe not never.

4. Using Colour In Interior Design

Now, colour theory isn’t just used in art, it’s also used in interior design, and the best layouts uses both analogous colours and opposition colours, to balance a room. In interior design, the ratio of colours depends on what aesthetic or mood you’re creating for the room. If you’re looking to create a dim and darker atmosphere, for relaxation and recharging, then using darker palettes while adding a few touches of light colours here and there, helps to set that mood. That’s why, usually, in dark rooms, you get the deep blues, purples and greens, with a touch of lighter yellows and pale blues. While the dark colours set the mood, the lighter colours add that sparkle to light the way, so you don’t stumble in the dark.

There are also other rules in interior design, like the 10:30:60 ratio, where you have one main colour for a room, and two other colours, to help harmonise and accentuate the colour. For example, if you’re going for a nautical theme, you might use cream as your main colour and use blue and orange to create that theme. Understanding the use of analogous and opposition colours can help with creating a theme or atmosphere in interior design, because then your space won’t be too cluttered with different contrasting colours and won’t be too visually difficult to look at.

Use The Colour Wheel!

Alright, now you know a few things about the colour wheel. It’s not that difficult to understand, but don’t rely on what I say, because there are professionals out there, who can teach you better than me. In fact, they even have whole courses and lessons on the colour wheel that will give you a much better and a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the different uses of colour, and how to apply it to your arts, crafts, or even design projects. So, give it a go, learn something new, because it might just help you with what you’re trying to create.

Well, that’s it from me today, I’m going to go and continue building my next Sims build, with this new colour palette in mind. While I go do that, please don’t forget to like, subscribe, comment, share and follow me, here on Feather’s Charm, on my YouTube channel, on my other social media channels (Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok), and on Patreon. Your support really does help me make more content like this, for you guys.