Color harmony schemes for painters, with the palettes to mix them

Three or four neighbouring hues: yellow, yellow-green and green for a spring landscape; red, red-orange and orange for an autumn one. Restful and coherent because the hues share pigment. Give it one accent from the opposite side of the wheel or it goes flat. Palette: the neighbours plus white plus one small tube of the complement for the accent and for greying.

Moss GreenRecipe by paint setOlive GreenRecipe by paint setSage GreenRecipe by paint setMustard YellowRecipe by paint set

Two opposite hues: blue and orange, red and green, yellow and violet. The most powerful scheme because the pair neutralise to grey, so a single pair gives you both full-chroma accents and every grey between them. Most of the picture should be the greyed mixtures, with the pure complements used sparingly. Palette: the two complements (Ultramarine + Burnt Sienna is the classic), white, and one yellow for warmth.

Burnt OrangeRecipe by paint setSky BlueRecipe by paint setRustRecipe by paint setTealRecipe by paint set

One hue plus the two neighbours of its complement: blue with yellow-orange and red-orange, or red with yellow-green and blue-green. Softer than a straight complement because the two accents are not exactly opposite, so they do not cancel to dead grey. Good for figurative work where you want a dominant hue and warm/cool accents.

CoralRecipe by paint setTurquoiseRecipe by paint setPeachRecipe by paint setForest GreenRecipe by paint set

Three hues equally spaced: the primaries, or orange-green-violet. Lively and balanced but easy to make garish; keep two of the three greyed and let one carry the chroma. Palette: a split-primary set covers any triad.

LavenderRecipe by paint setMustard YellowRecipe by paint setTealRecipe by paint setMaroonRecipe by paint set

Not a wheel scheme but the most common one in practice: Yellow Ochre, a red earth, an umber, black and white (the Zorn palette adds a cadmium red). The hues are all low-chroma versions of the warm side of the wheel, with black-and-white greys standing in for blue. Portraits, interiors and most old-master work live here. See limited palettes.

Light Skin ToneRecipe by paint setTerracottaRecipe by paint setBrownRecipe by paint setCreamRecipe by paint set

Look at the subject and ask which hues dominate. Most landscapes are an analogous green-yellow set with a blue-violet complement in the sky and shadows; most portraits are an orange-dominant complementary with blue-grey. Decide the scheme before you squeeze out paint and leave the other tubes in the box. A limited palette is not a handicap; it is what makes the painting hang together, and it makes your mixing recipes repeatable.