ART CONTRAST PRINCIPLES & ELEMENTS IN DESIGN COMPOSITION : Use Colors and Contrast to Create Interest in Drawings

Colour: Get to Grips with Balance and Contrast When Painting

The effects made by the following colour schemes can be seen more easily if you paint in stripes, but be as creative as you like with your compositions. Notice how each stripe, paint trail or shape that has already been laid down has to somehow work together with the next.

Chevreul's "Principles of Color Harmony and Contrast"

The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors by Michel-Eugène Chevreul – This classic "color theory" text, published in 1839 as The Law of Simultaneous Color Contrast (translated into English in 1854), is an artistic milestone, one of the first systematic studies of color perception and a compendium of color design principles that many 19th century French painters from Delacroix to Matisse attempted to apply in their art.

Contrast and Meaning

The function of contrast in defining meaning can be explained by comparing fundamental opposites: dark/light, soft/hard, fast/slow. Examples like these are useful because everyone understands the extremes they imply, but while there are extremes, there are no absolutes. The values are merely relative.

Simultaneous Contrast

Two colors, side by side, interact with one another and change our perception accordingly. The effect of this interaction is called simultaneous contrast.