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The color wheel is made up of three PRIMARY colors; red,
yellow, and blue, plus three SECONDARY colors made by mixing primaries;
red+yellow=orange, yellow+blue=green, blue+red=violet. Mix a secondary
with one of its primaries and you get a TERTIARY color, like red-violet
or yellow-green.
To make a color softer, mix in a little of the color opposite it on the color wheel, which is called its COMPLIMENTARY color. For instance, to tone down a bright blue, add a little orange. Adding a lot of orange will give you a lovely mud color. In the same way, bright orange can be toned down with a little blue. Yellow and purple tone each other down, as do red and green. |
| You can also tone down a multi-color print by dyeing or color-washing the entire piece in a primary color that is common to all the print colors. For instance, a print with lime green, violet, magenta, and white would be very vivid. Dip it in blue dye, and you'd have softer green, blue-violet, purple, and blue. | |
| Complimentary colors often look very good together, especially in muted tones. Think of lavendar and pastel yellow for Easter, or the deep, muted tones of purple and gold for a regal effect, or all different tones of red and green for Christmas. Blue and orange is not my favorite combination. It's used for sports teams a lot, though. |