Complementary colors sit directly across from each other on the color wheel. On the painter's wheel the main pairs are red and green, yellow and violet, and blue and orange.
| Hue | Complement (painter's wheel) |
|---|---|
| red | green |
| yellow | violet |
| blue | orange |
| red-orange | blue-green |
| yellow-orange | blue-violet |
| yellow-green | red-violet |
Key idea
Complements are opposites on the wheel. Side by side, they make each other look stronger. Mixed, they gray each other toward brown or gray.
Why it works
On the painter's wheel, each pair holds all three primaries between them: orange (red + yellow) and blue. That is why they look so different, and why mixing them cancels the color into a neutral. The chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul described how complements strengthen each other side by side in 1839 (see Colors Change Their Neighbors).
Worked example: Complements in a painting
In Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, a cool blue turban sits against a warm yellow-brown jacket. Which pair on the painter's wheel is this close to?
- Blue's complement on the painter's wheel is orange.
- The yellow-brown jacket is a dull, darker orange-yellow.
- So the turban and jacket are close to the blue-orange pair, and each makes the other look stronger.
Answer: Blue and orange.
Common mistake
Picking complements from the wrong wheel. In light (red, green and blue), the complement of blue is yellow. On the painter's wheel it is orange. Both answers are right for their wheel, so say which wheel you mean.