A very important part of art is learning about complementary colors and how they affect works of art. Complementary colors are colors that go well together, for example: blue and orange. An important skill in being a successful artist is to know these colors.

Some other colors that go well together are: purple/yellow, green/red. By looking at the chart I have provided, you can see how these colors are soft on the eyes and show a sense of togetherness. Green Level Art teacher Mr. Mapp says: “There are only three pairs of complementary colors, orange/blue, purple/yellow, red/green. When you put green and red next to each other, the green is going to seem more green and the red is going to seem more red. Vincent Van Gogh is a great person to look for with complementary colors in his work because you can see there’s these famous night scenes with red and green and they make it look really eerie, and sometimes, the dark purple and yellow of starry night, these are done very intentionally to make sort of, special effects in art.”

If you want to learn a little bit more about these colors, go talk to Mr. Mapp! He will be more than happy to help you young artists since this is such a key part of starting up as an artist.