What The Heck Are

Analagous Colors?

When you are choosing a color scheme for a quilt you will sometimes hear the suggestion that you should use analogous colors. What the heck are analogous colors?

Analogous is one of those intimidating technical words that hide a very simple meaning. Analogous colors are colors that live next door to each other. They are neighbours in the color spectrum.

The full range of colors from red through orange,yellow, green, blue, purple, and back to red again create a spectrum.

When you chose colors that are next to each other on that spectrum you are choosing analogous colors.

Why choose an analogous color scheme?

Imagine two reds. One has a little more orange than the other. Do they go together? Of course they do. Pick another red with just a little more orange and, not surprisingly, it goes with the first two.

When you pick colors that are close to each other on the color spectrum, they have something in common. They share some of the same elements. Orange has both red and yellow in it, so it goes well with both red and yellow. Green has both yellow and blue in it so it goes well with both.

Choosing analogous colors is an easy way to get your colors right.



Between any two colors on the spectrum there are an almost infinite number of colors. I say almost because there are only so many colors the eye can distinguish but it is a very large number of colors. Think of how many different blue purples and purple blues there are.

The number of colors becomes even greater when you start varying their value. You might start with just 3 neighbouring colors but if you make them lighter and darker as well, you find you have a whole array of analogous colors that you can use.

I love using analogous colors because I find they help create unity and harmony in a quilt.






If you want to read more about color, you might want to go to any one of these posts:
11 January 2012
31 August 2011
31 July 2011
25 June 2011