Welcome! This article is a part of Crafted Colour – Practical Colour Theory for Craft series, which is aimed at helping you develop your Colour Confidence and Craft with Colour. Today you will learn about Triadic and Tetradic Colour Schemes.
Triadic
Triadic colour schemes use three colours equally spaced around the Colour Wheel. Primary colours together are Triadic, as are Secondary colours. It is a popular colour scheme because it has strong visual contrast and balance without being too overpowering. This colour scheme give you four different palette choices primary (red, yellow and blue), secondary (orange, green and violet) and two tertiary (yellow-orange, red-violet, blue-green) (yellow-green, red-orange, blue-violet).
To use a Triadic colour scheme choose one colour to dominate. If the colours are too vibrant try using tones of the colours instead.
Tetradic
Tetradic colour schemes are also known as Double Complementary because they combine two sets of Complementary colours. Known as the richest of colour schemes it is also the hardest to achieve balance and harmony. When using this colour scheme chose one colour to dominate and keep the others in more subdued tones. Always watch the balance between warm and cool colours.
This wraps up the theory part of the series. Join me next while I examine the moods associated with particular colours.
