Obviously not, there are contrasting colors, colors that match and colors that don't match. There are primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors and many more hues and levels of saturation. Color theory has long set out to find colors that work well together and appear to be in harmony. Color theory can be traced back to the 15th century with the works in principles of colors by Leonardo Da vinci and Leon Battista Alberti. Sir Isaac Newton started the tradition of color theory with his theories on primary colors in the 18th century.
The color wheel can be traced back to the 18th century. Boutet's color circle/wheel can be seen below. This was drawn in 1708. It depicts hues of primary, secondary, tertiary and complementing colors.
As time passed the color wheel got more detailed. The one sketched below was created in 1908.
From this color wheel, harmonic color schemes can be composed. Here I describe the basic color schemes:
- The monochromatic classic scheme is one that is based on levels of saturation and brightness of a single hue. An example of this is the grayscale which I've seen in games and looks exceedingly soothing.
- An analogous color scheme focuses on colors that are adjacent to one another on the color wheel. Only a limited number of hues are selected.
- A complementary scheme involves colors on opposite sides of the color wheel.
- A split complement color scheme takes an analogous color scheme and adds to it the complementary analogous scheme on the opposite side of the color wheel.
- The triadic takes three analogous color schemes and puts them together so that they form a mercades benz kind of symbol over the color wheel. This can be seen below.
- In addition to these color schemes, there is also the double complementary scheme or tetradic scheme which is similar to the previous one but involves a pair of split complementary schemes over the wheel.
For a more detailed description of these as well as the pros and cons and tips on using each, visit this link.
It is very important to pick your colors, saturation and contrasts well and iterate over your color schemes. The more you experiment and get feedback from others, the more you master this art of producing harmonious color schemes. Color schemes also depend on the art style that you are coloring. Some color schemes go well with certain art styles and badly with others, so think, visualize and iterate.
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