A split complementary is when you use one of the main colors and two other colors that are adjacent to the complementary color of the chosen hue on the color wheel. The result is a paint scheme that offers high contrast without the tension of a complementary scheme. Examples of split complementary include: (i) red and yellow-green/blue-green or (ii) purple and yellow-orange/yellow-green. There are a total of 12 split complementary paint schemes,that I'm exploring.
Recently I visited Margret Mcwethy. She encouraged me to make small painting using only the three color groups of split colors. She felt that this exercise would enable the artist to see temperature.
The first couple days I painted split complements on a gray day. The one on top I used was Blue (cobalt Blue) Yellow -orange, Red. The bottom one is Blue Green, yellow green and red.
-This cloudy day study was painted with Blue Yellow Orange, orange red combo.
The example on the top is more of a sunny day compared to the bottom. Top violet Red, Yellow, and Blue. Bottom, Red violet, Viridian, Yellow combo creates the gray day.
These two are interesting study of the complements in a sunny day scheme. Orange, Viridian, Yellow for the top. The bottom was the use of Orange, blue, blue green.
Clearly a sunny day, Yellow, Orange, Blue
Two sunsets Top, Red, Yellow, Blue red combo. Bottom Red, yellow-green , Blue Green.
I found these exercises beneficial in that they stretched my understanding finding cools and warms in all these color combinations. By limiting the color choices I had to make decisions based on temperature instead of color specifics.
