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Colors that are close to each other on the color wheel are call "Harmonious colors".

Starting with three analogous colors and one or two more colors immediately adjacent to them will give you a set of harmonious colors. They are made up in part, by some of the same colors and work very well together in a painting because they reflect the same light waves.

So, for instance. green, yellow-green, yellow, yellow-orange, and orange would be harmonious colors. They all contain some yellow. If you add the sixth color, red-orange, it would no longer be harmonious. The red in the red-orange is the complement to green and would reflect the opposite light thus taking it out of harmony.

I'm sure you have seen paintings made up of only Harmonious Colors. They can be quite beautiful.

Take some time now to use only Harmonious Colors to see how nicely they work together and give painting a completely different feel.