> while the color wheel is a very useful tool for determining pleasant schemes
Is it? To my eyes, opposite colors on the painter's color wheel are maximally unpleasant. Green/red, for example, is infamous for creating bizarrely strobing optical illusions, when placed adjacent to each other. Purple/yellow. Blue/Orange. Also horrible combinations. I don't find color triads to be particularly pleasant combinations either.
I'm convinced that it's some made-up Victorian pomposity that nobody bothered to contradict, because anyone who was an actual artist didn't use it. Much like the Victorian theory that we taste salty and sweet on different parts of our tongue (we don't).
It is. The color wheel says complementary colors pop, but it doesn't imply this is a good thing. It's up to the designer to create something interesting from the contrast, typically by not putting them directly together.
A sibling comment mentions the blue-orange movie poster trope, and this is an excellent example. Note how the posters use the two colors: large blocky areas separated by either a smooth gradient or a high-density area of interest.
Is it? To my eyes, opposite colors on the painter's color wheel are maximally unpleasant. Green/red, for example, is infamous for creating bizarrely strobing optical illusions, when placed adjacent to each other. Purple/yellow. Blue/Orange. Also horrible combinations. I don't find color triads to be particularly pleasant combinations either.
I'm convinced that it's some made-up Victorian pomposity that nobody bothered to contradict, because anyone who was an actual artist didn't use it. Much like the Victorian theory that we taste salty and sweet on different parts of our tongue (we don't).