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The Colour Red: Complementary Colours

This is part of a series of posts about colour.  This month I am focusing on the colour red.

Red with Complementary Colour Green

Red with Split Complementary Colours

When you look at the colour wheel, the colour opposite red is green.  To show how complementary colours work, I have made a red/green complementary necklace above.  I have to say that this is not my favourite colour combination with red and I think that’s because it reminds me of Christmas.  Whenever I have put red and green together in jewellery, and tried to sell it anywhere, the same comment is guaranteed: “Oh, that looks very Christmas-sy.”

Even though it look spectacular in the garden – think red roses on a green rose bush – it just doesn’t look as amazing as a piece of jewellery.

The second picture is of a necklace made with red beads mixed with the colours that are next to green on the colour wheel.  This is a split-complementary colour scheme, and I think it looks very fresh.  I like the contrast of the yellow-green and the blue-green colours with the darkness of the red.

I’m not always a fan of complementary colour schemes, however split-complementary colour schemes can be quite stunning.  I’ll show you more along the way as I write about colours.