When you are a VIP to the “Big Boss,” you are asked a trillion questions every hour that you are in his presence. For those of you that do not know, “Big Boss” is my grandson, Iggy. He is four—enough said. “Why is the sky blue?” is just one of the many questions he asks.
I am asked how to mix “______” blue more than any other color. I think I could have a palette of nothing but blue colors and I would still be asked to make a “_____” blue the most often. That is why so many of the colors I feature on Mixology Monday© are a shade of blue.
So, why is the sky blue? My answer to Big Boss is that the sun sends out all of the colors of the rainbow. <Insert Iggy reciting all of the colors of the rainbow to me here.> However, I then go on to explain that we do not see all of the other rainbow colors: red, orange, yellow green, indigo and violet all of the time in the sky because blue is the strongest and most concentrated color and that peoples eyes are most sensitive to the color blue.
Picture Credit: ScienceMadeSimple.com
Iggy is good with that answer. Like other 4 year olds, he is happy to move on to his next question for me to answer. If you would like a more detailed answer, I found a couple of pages for you to visit. If you are a science geek, you probably already know this stuff. For those of you that are just “generally curious”, this article by Nicholas Gerbis, at How Stuff Works has a good explanation. Another good article about the blue sky is at Science Made Simple.
Picture Credit — www.sodahead.com
Like most other general color names, Sky Blue, is not a single, definitive color. Crayola® introduced its Sky Blue in 1957. According to Wikipedia, “Sky blue is the name of a color, first recorded in English in the 1729 Cyclopædia of Ephraim Chambers. Prior to the Chambers reference, the color had first been used in 1585 in a book by Nicolas De Nicolay where he stated, “the tulbant of the merchant must be skie coloured“.” We have our own sky blue in the CeCe Caldwell’s Paints palette: Blue Montana Sky.
I mixed up a couple of other sky blues, last week, as well. The first is American Wild Blue Yonder. I used Blue Montana Sky, Newport Navy and Simply White to achieve the color. The name came to me on Saturday, as we were treated to beautiful blue skies this past 4th of July. While we were waiting on the local parade to begin, there were a lot of planes flying overhead, up in the wild, blue yonder. Thankfully, my husband was on hand to tell Big Boss what kind of plane each one was. He was an Army pilot (and at one time an inquisitive boy living near a huge Air Force base) so he has been selected as the family’s “subject matter expert” on all things aviation related.
The other blue is similar to the blue color used by the United States Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, CO. It is the deeper blue tone of American Wild Blue Yonder. I call it Colorado Springs Blue. It is a mix of Blue Montana Blue and Newport Navy. Colorado Springs has been popping up in my life recently. A South Carolina friend moved there this week. Also, I will be visiting Colorado Springs on July 18. I will be at grand opening celebration of The Lazy Dazy. I am not sure of the exact time yet, so keep an eye on our Facebook page. We will let you know the times when they are set.
Do you have a favorite of color of blue? Share it with us on Instagram® by tagging it with #CeCeBlue To see the other blues I have mixed for Mixology Monday© visit our Mixology Monday© Pinterest® Board.
American Wild Blue Yonder: 4 parts Blue Montana Sky : 2 parts Newport Navy : 2 parts Simply White
Colorado Springs Blue: 4 parts Blue Montana Sky : 2 parts Newport Navy
Peace,
CeCe