On the other hand, if want a calmer vibe, go for darker shades of red such as burgundy or maroon.
17 Colors That Go With Red: Make this Bold Color Work for You
Founder and Managing Editor of Archute. He is also a graduate architect from The University of Nairobi, Kenya.
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Red is arguably the boldest color on the spectrum. In fact, many consider using red in your home or office a power move. However, it’s not as simple as painting your room red or buying a red sofa. You need to have a good understanding of the colors that go with red.
A good place to start would be understanding the color wheel. There are 3 primary colors, 3 secondary colors, and 6 tertiary colors.
- The main primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.
- The secondary colors are made by mixing the primary colors. These are green, orange, and purple.
- The tertiary colors are made by mixing the primary and secondary colors. These include red-violet, blue-green, red-orange, yellow-green, yellow-orange, and blue-violet.
The most complementary colors are often those that stay opposite from one another on the color wheel. For example, red and green, and purple and yellow.
Image Source: printrunner.com
Why are we even talking about primary colors and the color wheel? Because we want you to have a basic understanding of how colors work to get the best effect. With great power comes great responsibility, and if you want to use red, you should be able to handle the responsibility of pairing it properly.
One more thing to note before we get started is that you should avoid pairing red – which is a dominant color – with other dominant colors. This is especially true when you want your red to stand out.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started with our list of colors that go with red.
What’s On This Page?
What Colors Go With Red?
The best thing about interior design is that anything is possible. Therefore, before you scoff and move on to our next color combination, hear us out.
Strawberry and pink may give off a Valentine’s Day vibe, but it can be more than that, especially when you pair these colors properly.
A good example is this beautiful pink space. Do you see how that metallic rug creates an amazing contrast? This is a great way to pair these two colors. Incorporating darker hues grounds these colors.
Image Source: sightunseen.com
Another way you can combine red and pink is through artwork. You can get artwork that has this color combination if you don’t want to paint your entire room red or pink.
Currant Red + Charcoal
Currant red is a deep shade of red and makes for amazing interior design combinations. A good example is this currant red and charcoal combination.
Image Source: arborand.co
As you can see in this image, there’s more charcoal than currant red in this room which gives a cozy and earthy vibe. However, this doesn’t mean that you have to do it this way. You can use equal amounts of currant red and charcoal or mix them up however you want.
After all, charcoal is a subdued version of black, and black goes very well with red.
Introduction
Color Schemes are arrangements or combinations of colors used in illustration and design. When used on a design, color schemes are mostly used to describe local colors (colors of objects or material under neutral lighting). Meanwhile, color schemes in illustrations are used to express mood or ambiance. Local colors in an illustration are all affected by the ambient colors. For example, Rien’s blue-grey skirt on her character design (left) appears dark turquoise on the illustration (right) because it was affected by the green ambient light.
Digital artists are blessed with thousands of colors available with just a click. And don’t forget the almighty adjustment layers that we all think can solve every coloring problem. While it is encouraged to use those handy features for efficiency, there are actually rules to follow and ignore. Here, I’ll explain some basic knowledge of colors that can help you choose better color schemes for your art.
Usages
Using harmonious color schemes help us show a pleasing color combination. Color schemes can also help us describe a certain mood to the viewer.
Can you feel different moods in these similar comic panels?
Color Theory
Color theory is about understanding how color combinations work and how colors are not always how we perceive them to be.
When placed close together, colors communicate with each other. Some are complementary, some make other colors pop, while some colors don’t go well together, making both appear dull as a result. Color theory shows us that there are certain color arrangements in a color wheel that can come harmonious if put together in an artwork or design. Below is a familiar graphic showing color combinations that are harmonious based on color theory.
After looking at this graphic, harmonious color combinations seem pretty limited.
But don’t forget, color schemes are not only made of combinations of hues, but also combinations of different values and intensities. These three variables are known as the three properties of color.
HUE is the traditional color “name”, such as “blue” or “yellow”. The hues in the spectrum are traditionally listed as ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)
INTENSITY refers to the purity of a hue. We also call it saturation or chroma.
VALUE is a degree of lightness or darkness. Every color has value, e.g. high valued red will show as bright red or pink (if has less intensity)
Now with these three variables, there seems to be an infinite possibility of creating various color schemes. But is there really?
These are some color schemes I used on my illustration with different harmonious color combinations based on the color theory graphic above.
As you can see, besides the different color combinations, I also played with color intensities and values. But there are certain rules I always follow when playing with these variables. Can you see the pattern before I mention it?
#1 This is optional but I always arrange a color scheme based on their level of values. This way, it’s easier to implement the colors to an illustration or design. For example, dark accent colors are used for lineart, and highlight colors are used for sky, light sources or, well, highlights.
#2 I tend to (but not always) lower the intensity/saturation every time the color moves toward light or dark. This way, halftone colors are mostly the highest saturated colors in my color schemes.
#3 Lastly, this is the main rule of color, this is a law, not optional:
