Harmony Modes in Procreate

Color Harmony is one of those easy-to-use, yet very effective tools in Procreate. Harmony can help you to build beautiful and balanced color schemes based on the color choices you make. You can create Complementary, Split Complementary, Analogous, Triadic, or Tetradic color schemes.

In this article, we will go over different Harmony modes and how to use them in Procreate.

Harmony tool overview

To start using Color Harmony in Procreate, simply tap the Active Color – a little color circle on the right-hand side of the top menu. This will open up the Color panel. At the bottom, you will see different options – tap on Harmony.

Hue / Saturation disc

In the Harmony interface, both Hue and Saturation are combined into a single color wheel.
You will notice that the colors on the edge of the wheel are at their maximum saturation, and these colors become less saturated toward the middle of the wheel.

Brightness slider

Underneath the color disc is a brightness slider. You can adjust the brightness of the color disc by dragging the black and white slider.

Reticles

In Harmony, each mode will contain reticles: clear circles that you can drag around to select colors. The bigger circle is a primary reticle, and the smaller ones are the secondary reticles. The number of secondary reticles will change based on the Harmony mode chosen.
The secondary reticles shifts their position based on where you move your primary reticle to show the most harmonious color combinations.

Harmony modes

In the harmony tool, you have five different modes you can choose from to build the most harmonious color schemes, based on classic color theory.

At the top left of the Harmony interface, under the word “Colors”, you will see the “Complementary” – this is the default Harmony mode. Tap on Complementary to see the full list of Color Harmony modes in Procreate.

Complementary

The Complementary color mode comes with two reticles that choose colors from opposite positions on the color wheel.

In the complementary mode, one color will always be a cool color, and the other will always be warm. Together, these two colors will create the highest possible contrast on the color wheel. The two colors can also mix to create neutral hues, or they can blend together for shadows.

Split Complementary

The Split Complementary mode will have three reticles placed in a triangle formation on the color wheel.
Split complementary gives you a combination of one main warm and two cool colors, or vice versa. Unlike complementary color, though, split complementary color schemes are often more balanced and easier on the human eyes.

Analogous

The analogous mode has three reticles that select neighboring colors from one area of the color disc.
Usually, the main color is used as the color in the illustration, and the secondary colors are used for highlights and shadows. Because the three colors are analogous they are positioned so close to each other and it results in a very uniform and balanced color scheme.

Triadic

Triadic comes with three reticles that select colors in an equilateral triangle. This mode puts equal distance between all three colors reticles, and this results in a combination of colors that are equally dominant. This is perfect if you need to create a vibrant but carefully balanced color scheme.

Tetradic

The Tetradic mode has four reticles in a square formation with colors from opposite corners of the color wheel.
Like the triadic scheme, the tetradic places equal distance between all the colors creating four dominant colors where no color is overpowering. So, the final results are vibrant and colorful, but could also be a bit too aggressive.

How to select colors

To select a color simply drag the primary color anywhere on the color disc. Once the primary color has been chosen, you can start using it. If yo uneed to switch to the secondary color, simply tap on it. 

You can also build a palette by choosing a color and dropping it into a palette one by one.

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