Color Theory: Analogous Palettes

Boiled down, Analogous means similar and comparable in certain respects. Applied to color, analogous colors are a set of colors touching on the color wheel (i.e. Red, Orange, and Yellow and include the tertiary in-between colors like Blue, Blue-Purple, Purple, and Red-Purple). 

An analogous palette will give your paintings a warm or cool temperature depending on the chosen colors. An artist's colors are united by a common color in an analogous palette. For example, blue would be the common color in the landscape below on the right including Green, Blue, and Purple. Green and Purple are Secondary colors that require blue to create and it creates a sense of harmony throughout the piece.

I've explored a few analogous palettes on loose landscapes in my sketchbook to see how different temperatures affect the mood of the composition and to provide a few examples for my students. I also took atmospheric perspective into account while creating these thumbnail landscapes ensuring areas in my paintings maintained details and higher contrast in the foreground and grew looser and softer as they fell deeper into the background.

I've included 6 sets of colors to help a painter visualize and select which colors on their palette to limit themselves to before beginning with an Analogous color palette. By mixing only the three colors selected and utilizing the hues in between, an artist will be ready to tackle any piece with this harmonious palette.