Analogous colors are three or four colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. An analogous color scheme is an artwork or design that uses three or four related colors.
There are two types of analogous color schemes, cool and warm. Cool colors include green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet and red-violet. Warm colors include red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow and yellow-green.
The primary function of an analogous color scheme is to convey either a warm feeling or a cold feeling.
Designs that include orange, yellow-orange, yellow and yellow-green give a warm and pleasant feeling. Designs that include blue-green, blue, blue-violet and violet are cold, impersonal and distant.
Analogous color schemes allow the artist to communicate beyond what is depicted. Normally, a grassy meadow filled with greens and yellows reminds us of summer, but depict that same scene in blue-greens, blue flowers and violet skies and it conveys a sad, or cold feeling.