Thursday Thirteen # 19 - Shades of Blue

Since the colors of green post I did in honor of spring's arrival was such a hit (and continues to be responsible for bringing the most people to my blog, strangely enough), here's one in honor of summertime. As before, most of the definitions are from wikipedia.

Shades of blue:

1. Sky - strangely enough this one wasn't listed in the Wikipedia entry. I think it's a safe bet that we can all recognize sky blue without an official definition though.

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2. Denim - a shade of blue that resembles the shade of blue used in Denim (and what could be better than a favorite, perfectly broken in pair of jeans?). This color is an official Crayola color.

3. Azure - a color about halfway between blue and cyan, which resembles the sky on a bright, clear day. It is a pure chroma on the color wheel between blue and cyan, with a hue of 210° in HSV color space. The complementary color of azure is orange.

The term azure derives from the Persian lazhward, which was the name of a place known for its deposits of the deep blue stone now called lapis lazuli (stone of lazhward). The word was adopted into Old French by the twelfth century. From the French it was adopted into the English. The first recorded use of azure as a color name in English was in 1374.

In Russian, goluboj (azure or cyan) and sinij (blue or navy blue) are distinct colors the way red and pink are distinct colors in English. The same distinction exists between "azzurro" (azure, but used to indicate various shades of light blue) and "blu" (blue) in Italian.

United Nations azure is also called United Nations blue. This is the color of the flag of the United Nations and of the helmets worn by the United Nations peacekeeping forces.

4. Royal - a darker shade of blue. In religion, royal blue is the color of royalty to welcome the coming of a king. In Christian art, royal blue can also symbolize the night sky in which the star appeared to the wise men to announce the birth of Jesus. In the film Liar, Liar, Jim Carey, playing the main protagonist, unsuccessfully attempts to lie that a Royal Blue pen is in fact red.

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5. Navy - an especially dark shade of the color blue. Some people mistake navy blue for black, especially when concerning clothing, most notably the navy blue pinstripes of the New York Yankees home uniform. Navy blue got its name from the dark blue (contrasted with white) worn by officers in the Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. In the US Navy and the Canadian Navy, many uniforms which are called "blue" (e.g. Working Blues and Service Dress Blues) Canada (uniforms 1, 1A, 2B, 3, 3A, 3B (winter), 3C) are such a dark shade that they appear black (see Uniforms of the United States Navy), especially under artificial lighting.

In contemporary Western clothing fashion, navy blue is considered a conservative color appropriate for men's business dress. Navy blue is the nearly universal color of blazers and is also a favored color for suits. The complimentary colour of navy blue is peach.

6. Dark - The name comes from the word "Dark" (which originated from Old English dark, derk, deork; Anglo-Saxon dearc, and Gaelic and Irish dorch, dorcha) and "Blue" (taken from French and originated from the Indo-European root bhlewos). Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness. In Western civilization, those in high places of political or economic power often wear dark blue suits.

7. Light blue - a web color on the official list of web colors. Sometimes the color light blue is erroneously confused with Baby blue. The first recorded use of "light blue" as a color term in English is in the year 1915. The color light blue is used to represent boys as opposed to the color pink which is used to represent girls. In historical atlases published in Germany, light blue is commonly used as a color to represent Germany, as opposed to pink for England, violet for France, and light green for Russia.

The color light blue is commonly regarded as calming and relaxing. Because of this, sometimes it is used to paint hospital rooms. Since the color light blue reminds many people of water (although the actual color of water is cyan), light blue is a popular color for painting bathrooms or for porcelain bathroom fixtures.

Light blue is sometimes used as a synonym for the University of Cambridge, in contrast with the University of Oxford which has adopted a dark blue color. In Christianity light blue represents the deadly sin of sloth.

8. Midnight - a dark shade of blue, close to black, that was named for its darkness. Midnight blue is an official Crayola color, which was originally called Prussian blue. It is close to the color of Indigo dye. As it is a web-safe color, Midnight blue is an extremely popular color choice, showing up on various websites, including the latest version of Google's blog service, Blogger.

Historically, the traditional uniform colour of French Army officers is midnight blue. Officers (who purchased their own uniforms) normally chose midnight blue uniforms, or chose black uniforms which they called midnight blue, because they considered them smarter than the lighter shade, dark blue, used by other ranks.

The Carlton Blues, an Australian Rules Football Team, wear midnight blue colored Jerseys. The University of Toledo (Ohio) Rockets football and basketball teams wear midnight blue and gold jerseys. The New York Yankees Major League Baseball team have midnight blue as one of their official colors.

"Midnight blue" is the title of several songs, including ones by Lou Gramm, Melissa Manchester, Megumi Hayashibara, jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell and the Electric Light Orchestra.

9. Turquoise - the color of the stone in the very first piece of jewelry I ever bought for myself - a turquoise and silver ring purchsed on a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico the summer I was seven. I wore it until it literally had to be cut off my finger. This picture even looks a lot like my old ring.

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10. Aquamarine - a member of the beryl family, like emeralds. Aquamarine is transparent blue or sea-green (obviously we're going for blue here. Work with me folks.). The name comes from a Latin phrase meaning "water of the sea." Aquamarine is found all over the world, including Brazil, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Madagascar. It was thought to bring its wearers knowledge, foresight and inspiration. This variety of Beryl is transparent and comes in shades of blue and blue-green. However, the most admired aquamarine color, which is sky-blue, is produced by applying heat treatment to a greenish or yellow-brown beryl. Heat will enhance its blue color permanently.

The USS Aquamarine (PYc-7) was a patrol boat in the United States Navy during World War II.
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11. Cobalt - a cool, slightly desaturated blue colour, historically made using cobalt salts. It was discovered by Louis-Jacques Thenard in 1802. The world leading manufacturer of cobalt blue in the 19th century was Blaafarveværket in Norway, led by Benjamin Wegner. It is extraordinarily stable. Chemically it is a cobalt(II) oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt(II) aluminate, Co(AlO2)2. Commercial production began in France in 1807. It is made by sintering the stoichiometric mixture of finely ground CoO and Al2O3 at 1200°C. (No, I don't know what this means either. - R)

The blue seen on many glassware pieces is cobalt blue, and it is used widely by artists in many other fields. John Varley suggested it as a good substitution for ultramarine blue for painting skies. Maxfield Parrish, famous partly for the intensity of his skyscapes, used cobalt blue, and cobalt blue is sometimes called Parrish blue as a result. Because of its chemical stability in the presence of alkali, it is used as a pigment in blue concrete.

"Cobalt Blue" is also a filter used in ophthalmoscopes, and is used to illuminate the cornea of the eye following application of fluorescein dye which is used to detect corneal ulcers and scratches.

12. Periwinkle - a desaturated colour in the blue/indigo/violet family. Its name is derived from the lesser periwinkle or myrtle herb (Vinca minor) which bears flowers of the same colour. Periwinkle is also called lavender blue. It may be considered a pastel indigo. The first recorded use of periwinkle as a colour name in English was in 1922.

13. Baby - a lighter shade of cyan. It is known as a pastel color. Baby blue is identical to the X11 web color light cyan. The first recorded use of baby blue as a color name in English was in 1892. Baby blue is used extensively in products for baby boys.

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