Colour Balance

I have been told not to meddle with the creative process. That is why I have steered clear of the topic of composition till now, but there is one topic that I believe requires special attention, and it is the topic of this post, colour balance. There are no rules in art. If you worry that looking at this post will limit your creativity, skip it now.

Colour balnce is simply how most people think colours go together. That is probably why the rules of colour balance are often obeyed in flags. After all, you do want your flag to be pleasing to the eye, right? Most people have an idea of which colours to include in a picture, e.g. the use of contrasting colours, etc. The concept of colour balance is how much of each colour should be present. Consider the red-yellow-blue colour wheel, the general rule is that adjacent primary colours (red-yellow, yellow-blue, blue-red) balance each other in 1:1 or 1:3.

Colours opposite each other (red-green, yellow-purple, blue-orange) balance in bits, i.e. less than 1:3.

This is only a general rule and many other pleasing combinations exist. Furthermore, the balance changes as the tones change, i.e. pleasing proportions of red to green might not be pleasing for pink and olive. Treat this as a starting point for arranging colours in your art if you find yourself out of inspiration, but always endeavour to find something new and exciting. Remember, your eye is the final judge.