Hilary Page
Many artists know that complementary colour pairs are placed opposite one another on the colour wheel and that they can be used for colour mixing (to make bright colours more neutral) and colour enhancement (to make saturated colours appear even more brilliant). Most artists, however, are misinformed about the actual colours of complementary colour pairs.
Whilst researching for my own books on colour I began to question the prevailing literature on the subject of complementary colours. It’s become clear to me that there are not just one set of complementary colour pairs, but two. The names I coined for them are mixing complements and visual complements, to describe the two functions. The colour pairs of each are not the same.