Using the Color Wheel to Create Custom Color Schemes

The color wheel provides several methods of choosing colors that work well together. Of course, these methods are very generalized artistic concepts, so they wont apply to every image. However, many professionally designed color palettes are created using color wheel schemes. The bottom line when using these methods is that it can be interesting and useful to try them out, but you should always use your own judgment when making final decisions on image colors.

Complimentary Colors Complimentary Colors are colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel, as demonstrated in the image on the right. Given the fact that complementary colors are literally complete opposites, they usually shouldn't be used together in large amounts. However, using a large amount of one of the complementary colors and small amount of the other can be a useful method of creating an image with a strong base color and attractive highlights.

Harmonious Colors Harmonious Colors are created by drawing a triangle over the color wheel. The 3 points at which the triangle intersect are the 3 Harmonious Colors. When using harmonious colors, the two points that are closest together (in this case blue and purple) would be the dominant colors in the image, and the third color (in this case orange) is used to create highlights.

Some GIF Specific Tips

A sound understanding of color and lighting are important to any artist. But beyond this understanding, there are some issues that are specific to GIF Imaging, that need to be kept in mind.

GIF "Halos"

Just about everyone has seen GIF images that seem to have a "halo" around the border where the foreground of the GIF image ends and the background transparency begins. This happens when there is a dramatic difference between the image's original background color, and the web page's background color.

In order to avoid the problem, always create your GIF images with a background color that is similar to the background color that the web page will have. If you're totally uncertain as to the background color of the web page, your best bet is to use a medium gray as your image's background. If your background is a multi-colored pattern, use a color that closely matches the most dominant color in the pattern.