Complimentary Colors for Shadows

The Opposite Color May Be the Shadow You're Looking For

When we want to darken something, our first instinct is usually to reach for a darker version of the same color.

Dark green for green. Burgundy for red. Brown for orange.

That works.

But there's another wonderfully useful option: the color directly opposite your main color on the color wheel.

These are complementary colors:

• Red ↔ Green

• Blue ↔ Orange

• Yellow ↔ Violet

When complementary colors are layered together, they begin to neutralize one another. Used heavily, they can produce muted browns and grays.

Used lightly and deliberately, however, they can create rich, colorful shadows without simply making everything darker or blacker.

Why Does This Work?

Imagine a bright orange pumpkin.

You could shade it with brown. Perfectly reasonable.

But lightly layer a little blue into its deepest shadow and then bring orange back over it.

The blue quiets the orange without completely destroying it. The resulting shadow can feel deeper and more complex while the brighter orange beside it appears even more vivid.

That's one of the lovely peculiarities of complementary colors.

The shadow becomes quieter.

The light becomes brighter.

And both colors benefit from the contrast.

Try It: The Complementary Test

Create three orange rectangles.

Leave the first one orange.

Shade one end of the second with brown, gradually layering orange back over it.

Shade the third with a light application of blue, again layering orange over the top.

Compare them.

The brown shadow may feel warm and earthy.

The blue-based shadow may feel cooler and more dramatic.

Neither is automatically better.

They're simply different tools for different moods.

Now repeat the experiment with:

Yellow + Violet

Red + Green

You'll begin seeing just how many shadow colors have been hiding in your pencil box.

The Secret Is Restraint

Complementary colors are powerful.

If you attack a yellow flower with a heavy layer of violet, you're unlikely to get a delicately shadowed yellow flower.

You'll get...quite a lot of violet.

Start lightly.

Very lightly.

Build the complement into the shadow gradually, then layer the object's original color back over it.

You can always add more.

This technique works particularly well when you allow the complementary color to influence the shadow rather than completely announce itself.

The viewer doesn't necessarily need to think:

Ah yes. Violet.

They simply need to see a convincing, interesting shadow.

Red and Green: Beyond Christmas

Green foliage is a wonderful place to experiment.

Instead of automatically using dark green for every shadow, try adding tiny amounts of red, rust, burgundy, or reddish brown beneath your greens.

The result can be beautifully natural because real foliage contains enormous variations in color.

Likewise, a red apple can gain depth from muted greens.

That doesn't mean drawing green stripes across your apple.

Use a soft layer in selected shadow areas and bring red back over it.

The green helps neutralize the red while still allowing the finished object to remain unmistakably red.

And no, complementary colors are not required to spend December together.

Blue and Orange: Instant Drama

Blue and orange are particularly useful for dramatic lighting.

Think of:

• pumpkins under moonlight,

• candlelight in a dark blue room,

• sunset against a blue sky,

• warm autumn leaves against cool shadows,

• firelight on a nighttime figure.

Because orange is warm and blue is cool, the combination naturally creates strong temperature contrast.

A warm orange object with blue-violet shadows can feel much more luminous than the same object shaded entirely with brown.

This is why sometimes the best way to make something look warmer is to put something cool beside it.

Yellow and Violet: Handle With Care

Yellow is naturally very light, which makes its shadows particularly easy to muddy.

Black can overwhelm it almost immediately.

Violet offers another option.

For a yellow rose, sunflower, lemon, golden fabric, or candlelit object, begin with a very light violet in the deepest shadow areas.

Then layer yellow, ochre, gold, or warm brown over it.

The violet can give you depth without turning every shadow into dirty gray.

But this pair rewards a gentle hand.

Yellow is easily bullied.

Violet knows it.

Mini Challenge: Color Without a Darker Pencil

Choose a simple object with one dominant color.

A red apple.

Orange pumpkin.

Yellow flower.

Green leaf.

Blue ornament.

Your challenge is to create its shadows without using a darker version of the main color, brown, gray, or black.

Use its complement instead.

Start with light pressure, layer your main color over the top, and adjust the balance until the object still clearly reads as its original color.

Then add highlights and compare the brightest area with the complementary shadow.

You may find the entire object looks more colorful—even though you deliberately neutralized part of it.

Complementary Doesn't Mean Exact

You don't have to use a perfectly pure opposite from a textbook color wheel.

In fact, slightly altered complements are often easier to work with.

Instead of bright purple beneath yellow, try muted violet.

Instead of brilliant red beneath green, try burgundy or terracotta.

Instead of vivid blue beneath orange, try indigo, blue-gray, or blue-violet.

You're not taking a color-wheel exam.

You're using the relationship between colors to get the effect you want.

When Not to Use a Complement

Complementary shadows aren't required everywhere.

Sometimes a dark blue object genuinely needs deeper blue.

Sometimes warm brown is exactly right beneath an orange pumpkin.

Sometimes neutral gray gives you the atmosphere you want.

And if every object contains an obvious patch of its complementary color, the technique itself can begin attracting more attention than the picture.

Use it when it adds something.

Skip it when it doesn't.

That's going to become something of a recurring rule in the Art Studio.

Look Closely at Your Own Coloring

Pull out a page you've already colored.

Find an area where you used a darker version of the local color for the shadows.

Now imagine introducing just a little of the complement.

Would it cool the shadow?

Mute an overly bright area?

Make the illuminated color seem stronger?

You don't necessarily need to change the finished page. Simply begin noticing the opportunities.

Eventually, instead of thinking:

I need a darker orange.

You may start thinking:

I wonder what a little blue would do here.

That's a much more interesting question.

Edenglow Studio Tip

If a shadow looks dull, don't automatically make it darker. Change its color.

Value creates depth, but color temperature and color relationships can create depth too.

Once you become comfortable putting “wrong” colors into the right places, colored pencils become considerably more fun.