Locate the primary colors, red, yellow and blue, on the color wheel. In the art world, these pure colors are hues.
Set the color wheel with red at the top, in the 12 o'clock position. Find orange at the 2 o'clock position, violet at the 10 o'clock position and green at the 6 o'clock position. These are the secondary colors, a combination of two primary colors.
Look at the space between a primary and secondary color to locate the tertiary colors, which is a combination of a primary and secondary color. For instance, between red and violet, you find red-violet. Other tertiary combinations include, red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green and blue-violet
Add different amounts of white to any color to create pastel tints.
Add different amounts of black to any color to create the darker shades.
Add a combination of black and white to any color to create the muted gray tones.
Locate any three side-by-side colors on the color wheel to create an analogous color combination. Feature one of these colors in your project and use the other two as highlights or accents.
Draw a line from any color on the wheel to the color directly opposite to identify complementary colors. These provide a visually striking color combination by maximizing contrast.
Look around at color combinations in nature. They may not strictly follow the artistic formulas for color schemes, but the human eye does appreciate color combos found in real life. Also, all color combinations found in nature match (all the colors in a flower for example).
Select tints, shades and tones derived from a single base color to create a monochromatic color scheme.
Consider other color combination formulas such as the split complementary, which match a single hue with to colors spaced equally from its complementary color." The double-complimentary color set combines two pairs of complementary colors that lie in close proximity to one another on the color wheel. The triad color combo uses three colors equidistant from one another on the color wheel.