Different Shades of Blue: A List With Color Names and Codes

January 5, 2016October 9, 2017 color-pencil 40 Comments

Can You Name All The Blue Hues, Shades, Tints, Tones And Other Variations?

There are hundreds of blue shades and we have many examples of a certain color name assigned to different HEX codes. On the other hand several blue colors are known under more than one name. We’ll try to present as many blue tints and hues as possible in slightly different arrangement as you might expect. Each color carries its own story and this article is touching dozens of them.

shades-of-blue

Blue For Trust And Authority

Blue is used to express and emphasize authority for many centuries. It is no coincidence police uniforms are so often blue or mainly of blue color. Its effect on human psychology is in most cases calming and ancient culture associated it heaven and gods. The reason is obvious: while blue is not so widespread in nature as some other colors, it dominates sky and water, two major elements in nature, both closely associated with divinity.

When King of England (George III) needed color with strong impact to immediately express royalty, several clothiers across the country tried to develop the right color and shade. Ultimately Scutts Bridge Mill won the contest. Queen Charlotte wore the robe in this color, what gave the color an alternative name Queen Blue.

#2B60DE Royal Blue

#002366 Royal Blue (Traditional)

#4169E1 Royal Blue (Web or SVG)

#0038A8 Royal Azure

#7851A9 Royal Purple

With addition of white or black we can instantly create dozens of shades and tints for the same color and with different processes of production and addition of some red or yellow inevitably followed. Especially addition of red led to dramatic changes, what can be seen at royal purple above. It’s actually pretty interesting to find out how many ways are to make color blue, which is szpposed to be a so-called basic or primary color.

Around 1950 another, lighter shade of blue became known as royal and with an introduction of computer graphics (plus numerous limitations, which were gradually changed) and so called web safe colors, we got almost more than we can handle. Simply naming colors with numbers seemed a practical idea, yet it doesn’t guarantee the standardization.

Here are a few more examples of Royal Blue:

#4876FF Royal Blue 1

#436EEE Royal Blue 2

#3A5FCD Royal Blue 3

#27408B Royal Blue 4

#3333FF Royal Blue (Safe Hex3) aka Neon Blue

We are not finished with supreme authority yet. As we already mentioned, blue is named after the queen. Palate, president, celestial and imperium all belong to that category.

easter-shirt-for-boys — Soft blue tones are especially popular for little boys

#4997D0 Celestial Blue

#002395 Imperial Blue

#273BE2 Palatinate Blue

#302B54 Presidential Blue

#436B95 Queen Blue

Let’s get back to Earth and repressive apparatus where blue instantly creates the feeling of respect and authority.

#39B7CD NYPD Blue

#0BB5FF Police Strobe

#5D8AA8 Air Force Blue

#000080 Navy Blue

#5F9EA0 Cadet Blue

Navy blue, classical color of authority, can be used in very playful ways too, as we can see in the photo above. Its relative cadet blue is softer and even more appropriate for young people or less ceremonial occasions.

There are actually five more Cadet Blue colors, their names being differentiated with numbers only:

#5F9F9F Cadet Blue 1

#98F5FF Cadet Blue 2

#8EE5EE Cadet Blue 3

#7AC5CD Cadet Blue 4

#53868B Cadet Blue 5

And we can present at least five examples officially belonging to the family of navy blue colors as well!

#1974D2 Bright Navy Blue (Crayola)

#091F92 Indigo Dye

#32127A Persian Indigo

#4E5180 Purple Navy

#1D2951 Space Cadet

There are very pragmatic reasons for so many different tints of blue (or other colors). British navy blue, originally called marine blue, was slowly accepted as official color for majority of navies all over the world. But using it in harsh environment with salted water and bright sun, it always faded a bit, so several navies started to use black (believe it or not, it is available in numerous shades, too) which is significantly more resistant to weather conditions.

The final result: everything you might imagine and more!

List of Universities and Schools with Blue Uniforms

For similar reasons Schools and Universities love to include different variations of blue in their coats of arms, uniforms and here we have a selection of ten blue colors named after the prestigious schools, where they are used:

#0070FF Brandeis Blue

#A3C1AD Cambridge Blue

#7BAFD4 Carolina Blue (University of North Carolina)

#9BDDFF Columbia Blue aka Jordy Blue

#001A57 Duke Blue aka Prussian Blue (we’ll find another color with the same name later under different code)

Most of listed colleges changed colors of uniforms during centuries, so don’t be angry if you find some discrepancies among listed blues. We tried to verify each one of them at official web sites, but some of them are not updated, others offer contradictory data, and some info is simply not available.

Duke Blue offers only one of interesting stories, where they started with Yale Blue (their headmaster came from there, but after several changes decided to take #001A57 (Prussian Blue). To make things even more interesting Prussian Blue is also connected with different code (will be added later with its own story).

Columbia Blue, on the other hand, is also known under #9CDDFF and #C4D8E2 codes!

#96C8A2 Eton Blue

#002147 Oxford Blue aka Deep Cyan

#417DC1 Tufts Blue

#3C9BED UCLA Blue

#00356B Yale Blue

For instance, there are two HEX codes associated with it in the web: #0F4D92, also #0E4C92 for Yale Blue color. When we check the official site of Yale University, the answer is simple: #00356B, yet they allow to use blue in two pretty different shades too: #286DC0 in #63AAFF. Oxford Blue is also associated with #2F394D and #374853, and blue of University of California, Los Angeles, is connected with three more codes: #3A9AEC, #536895 in #3284BF.

To be honest – at least two of the presented colors look more green than blue to me, but, hey – who wants to get into disagreement with guys from Cambridge or Eton?

For different reasons several shades of blue color are associated with specific places or even countries.

#0072BB French Blue

#318CE7 Bleu de France

#1034A6 Egyptian Blue

#1C39BB Persian Blue

#0067A5 Medium Persian Blue

Not only countries, smaller entities like islands, harbours or even beaches gave name to specific colors of blue:

#062A78 Catalina Blue

#006DB0 Honolulu Blue

#0095B6 Bondi Blue

#517693 Malta Blue

#42C0FB Caribbean Blue

We’ll get back to water, but before that we still need to check at least one special paint with pretty romantic name – Evening in Paris (yes, there is a fragrance with the same name on the market and it’s also a name for one of popular themed parties). As you can see different paint makers offer different interpretations of this lovely color:

evening-in-paris-blue-color

#254280 Evening in Paris (Berger)

#28497A Evening in Paris (Coronado)

#314D8C Evening in Paris (Kelly-Moore)

#315889 Evening in Paris (Cloverdale)

#938FA0 Evening in Paris (Behr)

Sky Blue Colors – Shades

Sky can have countless shades of blue, so we can rightfully expect several shades of sky blue. Only few of them are presented in next series:

#87CEEB Sky Blue

#87CEFF Sky Blue 1

#7EC0EE Sky Blue 2

#6CA6CD Sky Blue 3

#4A708B Sky Blue 4

Apart from these five tones of sky blue, we have five more with almost the same names, differing only by numbers or conventions.

#0099CC Sky Blue 5

#3299CC Sky Blue 6

#80DAEB Sky Blue (Crayola)

#77B5FE Sky Blue (Pourpre.com) aka French Sky Blue

#C0D9D9 Sky Light Blue

But that’s not the end! Sky blue is obviously too generic term, so more detailed names came in the list of blue colors. Light sky blue is one of them and it seems it comes in at least five shades with the same name as well:

#87CEFA Light Sky Blue

#B0E2FF Light Sky Blue 1

#A4D3EE Light Sky Blue 2

#8DB6CD Light Sky Blue 3

#607B8B Light Sky Blue 4

All right, enough of light sky colors. We all know the weather is very changeable, and we can’t expect it will be always sunny. Are you ready for some deeper and more dramatic tones of blue?

#00BFFF Deep Sky Blue aka Capri Blue aka Turquoise Blue

#00B2EE Deep Sky Blue 2

#009ACD Deep Sky Blue 3

#00688B Deep Sky Blue 4

#1B3F8B Alaska Sky

And how about few more sky blues with corresponding HTML codes?

#00AAE4 Sky blue (G&S) aka Spanish Sky Blue

#8CBED6 Sky blue (Pantone) aka Dark Sky Blue

#67C8FF Neon Blue

#4D4DFF Light Neon Blue

#38B0DE Summer Sky Blue

Color of clear sky has its own name – azure and this is how azure color got the name. We can actually offer a full set of azure colors:

#007FFF Azure Blue

#E0EEEE Medium Azure Blue aka Azure2

#C1CDCD Dark Azure Blue aka Azure3

#838B8B Deepest Azure Blue aka Azure4

#F0FFFF Azure Blue (SVG / WEB)

Did you know word azur comes from the very same root as Spanish azul, which is just short from ‘lapis azuli’? Lapis azuli is of course precious stone and we’ll come to that too! Let’s stay at shades of sky for now. When, for instance, the sun goes down, color of the sky changes and that inspired next set of variations:

#003366 Dark Midnight Blue

#000033 Hex Midnight Blue

#2F2F4F Midnight Blue

#191970 Midnight Blue (SVG)

#00009C New Midnight Blue aka Duke Blue

Well, sky was for most of the civilizations home of gods and other supreme deities. Several civilizations placed heaven or similar transcendent places. One of words, used for heaven or heavenly is celeste, so we have a pack of celestial blue tones on the list:

#B2FFFF Celeste

#E6FFFF Celeste Polvere (Dusty)

#CCFFFF Celeste Pallido (Pale)

#CCE6E6 Celeste Velato (Veiled /Overcast)

#80CCCC Celeste Opaco (Opaque)

Did you notice, we have already made a sub-list of fourty variations of sky blue colors?

Water Is Blue Too – Aqua Blue Colors With HEX Codes

The other dominant element in nature in blue color is water. Aqua is Latin for water, so we can start right here, with a series of aqua blue colors.

#00FFFF Aqua (Safe 16 SVG Hex3) aka Cyan

#BCD4E6 Pale Aqua aka Beau Blue

#88D8C0 Pearl Aqua

#66CCCC Aqua (Safe Hex3)

#05B8CC Aqua Cerulean

If we need blue shades more closely related to specific types of water, or waters with geographic names, here they are:

#35586C Pacific Blue aka Neon Blue

#7D7F94 The Nile Blue

#4CB7A5 Blue Lagoon

#67E6EC Swimming Pool Blue

#2B65EC Ocean Blue

Each of North American Great Lakes has its own specific color:

#6183A6 Lake Eerie

#5D7B93 Lake Huron

#50A6C2 Lake Michigan

#4D71A3 Lake Ontario

#506987 Lake Superior

Let’s try to compare them by satellite photo:

Well, these colors apparently vary with weather conditions and we can’t expect total match for all the tones. It’s better to continue with more tints and shades of blue. We are still at different states of water:

#74BBFB Blue Ice

#71A6D2 Iceberg

#ACE5EE Blizzard Blue

#82CFFD Blue Mist

#AF96D1 Spindrift Blue

We are not over with nonliving nature. Blue can be found in several minerals and first pigments came from some of them. Lapis Azuli is probably most famous of them. Its beauty and rarity is one of the main reasons why blue was in so many places considered as a special color, reserved for nobility and members of highest social classes.

List Of Blueish Colors Named After Minerals

Here we have a list of blues named after precious or semiprecious stones. Rember? Official history of blue color started with Lapis Lazuli!

#26619C Lapis Lazuli

#73A9C2 Moonstone Blue

#082567 Sapphire

#0EBFE9 Diamond Blue

#0198E1 Topaz

Lapis Lazuli, already magnificent with its deep blue color, often occurs in nature mixed with pyrite, known by its goldish glare, as we can see in the photo below. On the right is presented made pigment, the base of most expensive color for Renaissance painters. It’s called Ultramarine. Other four stones in the series all occur in different colors, but here are represented only in blue variations.

While we already mentioned pigments, we can present several classic blue pigments with appropriate hexadecimal codes:

pigments-blue-paints

#60869B Aerinite
#071762 Anthraquinone
#004379 Apatite
#3A688A Azurite
#004BA8 Cavansite

pigment-blue-color

#A6E0E9 Copper Blue
#138C95 Cupric Hydroxide
#0326CA Han Blue
#283F82 Kinoite
#2A3352 Kyanite

hex-codes-for-blue-pigments

#102AD2 Manganese Oxide
#73C2FB Blue Mayan
#044F90 Blue Pentagonite
#7AC5FC Ploss Blue
#50748C Riebeckite

blue-pigment-html-codes

#4A5CA6 Sodalite
#112F64 Tungsten Blue
#365F9D Ultramarine Ash
#0B2C41 Vivianite
#4D5B8A Woad

Remember? All this started with Lapis Lazuli! Let’s continue with another semi-precious stone, this time, known in several of blueish tones.

#4E78A0 Aquamarine Blue

#7FFFD4 Aquamarine

#66CDAA Medium Aquamarine

#32CD99 Darkened Medium Aquamarine

#76EEC6 Darkened Aquamarine

We can’t continue without another important blue tone, which is always mixed with green. Sometimes green dominates, what can be seen below at color scales and corresponding names.

#00FFEF Turquoise Blue

#34DDDD Turquoise Hex Web

#40E0D0 Turquoise

#00E5EE Standard Turquoise aka Turquoise 2

#00C5CD Deep Turquoise aka Turquoise 3

Believe it or not, we managed to compile a list of 15 turquoise colors altogether!

#AFEEEE Light Turquoise aka Pale Blue aka Pale Turquoise

#BBFFFF Paled Turquoise aka Light Turquoise

#668B8B Deepest Pale Turquoise

#48D1CC Medium Turquoise

#00CED1 Dark Turquoise

Did you know turquoise color got its name after Turkey (French term ‘pierre tuquoise’ translates as ‘Turkish stone’)? While the origin of ancient turquoise was probably area of today’s Iran, European traders got it on Turkish bazaars, what means we know at least two famous items from Turkey (turkey, the bird, originating in South America, and turquoise, precious stone, originating in Persia), not being from Turkey at all!

#00868B Darkest Turquoise

#32C6A6 Pearl Mystic Turquoise

#00F5FF Shocking Turquoise

#5E7D7E Grayish Turquoise

#A0D6B4 Green Turquoise

To round up the set we also included Green Turquoise, which already belongs to the family of green colors, but the situation with turquoise was always on the fence – blueish green or greenish blue. Some of these HTML codes are also known under different names.

Blue is one of so called cool colors. It should be no surprise to find it in various connections with different metals and other inorganic substances.

#3D59AB Cobalt Blue

#6666FF Cobalt Light

#003399 Smalt aka Dark Powder Blue

#2E37FE Stained Glass Blue

#236B8E Blue Steel

Steel obviously inspired whole family of blue colors. Please, beware – Blue Steel is not the same as Steel Blue!

#63B8FF Steel Blue

#5CACEE Steel Blue 2

#4F94CD Steel Blue 3

#36648B Steel Blue 4

#4682B4 Livid Steel Blue

Here are five variations of Light Steel Blue color.

#B0C4DE Light Steel Blue

#CAE1FF Light Steel Blue 1

#BCD2EE Light Steel Blue 2

#A2B5CD Light Steel Blue 3

#6E7B8B Light Steel Blue 4

We are still in the inorganic area, slowly moving from metals to more amorphous structures.

#ADB2BD Aluminium Blue

#73B1B7 Old Copper

#000F89 Phthalo Blue

#50729F Blue Stone

#B0E0E6 Powder Blue

Let’s digress from the materials for a moment or two: one of the colors above (Phthalo Blue) is actually commercially known by many different names: Helio Blue, Monastral Blue, Thalo Blue, Winsor Blue and also British Rail Blue. It’s known by it’s chemistry names and abbreviations Copper Tetrabenzoporphyrazine, C.I. Copper Phthalocyanine Blue, Cu-Phthalo Blue, Phthalocyanine Blue or simply CuPc. Thanks to its light fastness, opacity, spreading capacity, stability (resistance to acids and alkalies) and brilliant hue it is widely used in dyes and paints.

Now back to the main story … Slate has its own family of blues as well.

#6A5ACD Slate Blue

#836FFF Light Slate Blue

#7A67EE Slate Blue 2

#6959CD Slate Blue 3

#473C8B Slate Blue 4

There are even more Slate colors, some of them looking very blueish too, but they officially belong to the group of grey colors. Shall we move to living nature instead?

List Of Blue Colors, Named After Flowers

First blue pigments were made out of minerals, but real mass production started only after herb extraction was perfected. Many different flowers were used and this for instance resulted in whole family of cornflower blues:

#3300FF Cornflower

#6495ED Cornflower Blue

#93CCEA Light Cornflower Blue (Crayola)

#ABCDEF Pale Cornflower Blue

#344152 Blue Corn

The most famous (and stable) vegetable dye is of course Indigo, with one of variations already mentioned above at navy blue colors. Here we have five more:

#00416A Indigo

#2E0854 Dark Indigo

#6F00FF Electric Indigo

#4B0082 Indigo (SVG)

#72587F Indigo Tile

Next set is occupied by two flowers: periwinkle and lavender.

#CCCCFF Periwinkle

#AAAAFF Cute Periwinkle (Hex 3)

#B57EDC Lavender Blue (Floral)

#E6E6FA Lavender Mist Lavender (Web)

#9457EB Lavender Indigo

Both colors are known in many variations, often verging on purple or violet, sometimes on grey.

For instance, you can check this article with periwinkle color chart. Here we have five more blue flowers:

#B7C3D0 Heather Blue

#5A4FCF Iris

#7EB6FF Forget Me Nots

#A2A2D0 Blue Bell

#838EDE Nikko Blue

While blue is by no means among most prevalent colors in animal world, we can still find numerous examples of blue colors named after animals. Shall we start in water?

#6996AD Blue Shark

#42647F Whale Blue

#687C97 Tuna Blue

#6F7285 Dolphin Blue

#46C7C7 Jellyfish Blue

In animal world the color often serves as camouflage and colors of fish (and sea mammals) are not particularly attractive. Jellyfish, on the other hand uses its color as kind of warning. We also already know blue is popular in the air and animal world is no exception:

#4973AB Blue Bird

#33A1C9 Peacock Blue

#1D7CF2 Peafowl Blue

#96DED1 Pale Robin Egg Blue

#C3E4ED Robin’s Egg Blue

Some animals live in water and in the air almost equivalently. A small freshwater duck with typical blueish greenish stripe on the wings is fine example. Yes, teal is another name for that kind of duck, and yes again, we have full set of teal colors!

#367588 Teal Blue

#00FFCC Light Teal

#388E8E SGI Teal

#008080 Teal

#05EDFF Teal LED

To round up the number, we compiled five more blue colors of animals!

#003EFF Cichild Blue

#3579DC Parrot Blue

#5D92B1 Blue Sponge

#1464F4 Ulysses Butterfly Blue

#88ACE0 Blue Cow aka Moo Blue

How about people? Blue is the most popular color in the world among men and women. A few artists were so much in love with it that certain shades got the name after them. Let’s see, what we got:

#6050DC Majorelle Blue

#0047AB Parrish Blue aka Cobalt Blue

#4D6FAC Pollock Blue

#0276FD Picasso Blue

#739AC5 Seurat Blue

Here are full names of painters who inspired the aforementioned names:

Jacques Majorelle (7 March 1886 – 14 October 1962)
Maxfield Parrish (25 July 1870 – 30 March 1966)
Paul Jackson Pollock (28 January 1912 – 11 August 1956)
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973)
Georges-Pierre Seurat (2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891)

And there is another special hue of blue, named after a person:

What Color is Alice Blue?

alice-blue-color

#F0F8FF (240, 248, 255) Alice Blue
#9DD3DF ICI Paints Alice Blue (157, 211, 223)
#A3A9D1 Peintures MF Bleu Alice (163, 169, 209)
#A3D7E5 CIL Alice Blue (163, 215, 229)
#A6D7DD Devoe Paint Alice Blue (166, 215, 221)

The color Alice Blue is named after Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884-1980), the eldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. She was a writer and became instant fashion icon when shown at her first social event in now her signature blue hued dress. Her influence on trends in women’s dress codes was tremendous and didn’t stop at dressing in colorful clothes only. She openly ‘competed’ with men in then traditional male areas, like smoking, betting, night clubbing or car driving. This shade of blue is still very popular for gowns and it will definitely stay in demand for many years to come.

How about one even more popular shade of blue? The Baby Blue?

Baby Blue Color

The Baby Blue color is closely associated with newborns and other small male kids. This gentle hue became especially popular after the World War 2 and is always in contrast with Baby Pink, reserved for baby girls. Shall we explore the family?

baby-blue-color-code

#89CFF0 (137, 207, 240) Baby Blue
#C9DBE5 (201, 219, 229) Baby Blue (CIL)
#A2C6D3 (162, 198, 211) Baby Blue (Earthpaint)
#C3D7E1 (195, 215, 225) Baby Blue (ICI Paints)
#CDDBDE (205, 219, 222) Baby Blue (Devoe Paint)

You won’t find these hues of pastel blues in baby clothes only. As you can see, several brands of Baby Blue paints are on the market and we presented only a friction of them.

baby-blue-hex

#A1CAF1 (161, 202, 241) Baby Blue Eyes
#7A808C (122, 128, 140) Nippon Paint Baby Blue Towel
#AAC9EA PPG Pittsburgh Baby Bunting (170, 201, 234)
#E7FEFF (231, 254, 255) Bubbles
#6CA0DC (108, 160, 220) Little Boy Blue

Let’s stay at pastels, but this time for older costumers:

David’s Bridal Dress Colors

In recent years several companies started to invent their own names for colors of their products and the wedding industry is a fine example of such practice. David’s Bridal, for instance, is an American clothier, specialized in formal wear, especially for weddings. Their colorful wedding dresses for brides and bridesmaids are extremely popular and so are their colors. These don’t have publicly known HTML codes, but thanks to our tools we can recreate pretty good approximations, so you can try few combinations on your own without actually going to the store or order samples.

Here is the first series, sometimes called Ocean:

davids-bridal-ocean-blue-colors

#81CDC9 Spa
#74C6D4 Pool
#00B2D0 Malibu
#1C83B1 Pacific
#00829A Oasis

The second series of blue colors at David’s Bridal is called (how appropriately – Out of the Blue)

out-of-the-blue-davids-bridal-hex-codes

#A6D4EB Capri
#0289CB Cornflower
#044B9B Horizon
#384EA3 Blue Violet
#1B485D Peacock

I have to admit, these two series are not complete, because I tried to stay within five colors per series, so a few colors failed to qualify. Here they are, together with two more blueish hues from David’s Bridal coloring scheme for brides and bridesmaids:

davids-bridal-blue-dresses-for-bridesmaids-codes

#03807C Jade
#005162 Gem (from Ocean)
#E0F2F2 Sea Glass (from Out of the Blue)
#0D3662 Marine (from Out of the Blue)
#01A7A8 Mermaid

We are not over yet. One more shade is still there (Ice Blue) and I decided to add four more from Alfred Angelo’s own scheme, this time from their blue ties for grooms and groomsmen:

alfred-angelo-blue-color-codes

#92B1D7 Ice Blue (still from David’s Bridal)
#86C2B6 Aqua (by Alfred Angelo)
#117597 Bermuda Blue (by Alfred Angelo)
#115965 Dark Pacific (by Alfred Angelo)
#1D2F5F Ink (by Alfred Angelo)

What do you say? Time to switch to more artistic waters?

blue-acrylic-paints-hex-codes

#2762EA RGB (39,98,234) Cobalt Blue Cerulean by Lascaux
#34287C RGB (52,40,124) Ultramarine Blue by Golden (Heavy Body)
#1B1E47 RGB (27,30,71) Old Delft Blue by Old Holland
#18599B RGB (24,89,155) Phthalo Blue by Daler-Rowney
#002FA7 RGB (0,47,167) Yves Klein Blue aka International Klein Blue aka IKB

This is only a start – four popular acrylic colors in comparison with one of the most interesting blue shades in the history. It is said it posses a glow like none other blue color. Yves Klein (1928-1968) was French artist who composed this very special shade from ultramarine pigment (it was made by paint supplier Edoard Adam) and synthetic resin named Medium Adam 25. It was the resin, used as a binder, which supposed to give uniqueness to the color. Klein used this color to bath the models, who, under his guidance, rolled, danced and brushed against papers and canvasses to make spectacular art works.

It’s said IKB can’t be reproduced, but the truth is rather in the lack of commercial interest by manufacturers. Well, it’s up to you to find the magic in this (or any other shade of blue), but if you started to like acrylic paints, here is also a growing post about acrylics for beginners …

My basic goal – to compile 50 shades of blue soon changed into one hundred and now this article offers more than two hundred (exactly 270 hues at the moment) variations of blue color, what officially results in the largest list of blue variations with corresponding HTML (HEX) codes on the web. My intention is to make it even longer – to achieve at least 300 different blues by the end of 2017. If you find this list, which took me hundreds of hours to collect, check and re-check, interesting, please, share it with your friends. It will inspire me to expand it as far as I could, maybe up to three hundred!

Cheers!

How to draw a rose?

August 31, 2014November 20, 2016 color-pencil

So you wanna know how to draw roses, the most romantic flowers in the world?

There are several ways of drawing roses and all them are essentially pretty simple. We’ll explore some of them, going from the most easy to more difficult ones.

Have your pencil ready. You can start with a circle, continue with a spiral, add petals in several groups from inside out. Add a stem and don’t forget the thorns. Now you can erase unnecessary lines and draw the rose to the color of your choice. sounds too easy? Well, it actually is easy! If you are confident enough, you can skip the part with a pencil and go right with the pen. You can draw a rose in less than a minute!

There is another, a bit more complicated way to make internal part of the bloom, which is still very simple and perfectly suitable for beginners. Feel free to check next video as well:

If you would like to show your rose in different perspective, I have found another video with a great step by step presentation. Who said beginners can’t aim at astonishing results? Please note how much can be done with shadows!

We all know roses have kind of personality, which was explored in numerous ways in literature and other media. You can find out more about the roses with their amazing symbolism in the next article:

http://wizzley.com/roses/

You can add a nice twist to your rose with application of so called kawaii style:

Although a rose is not a tiger, you can still add a little character to the picture! Cute, huh?

Or you can make it with next step by step tutorial, where you’ll find much more detailed explanations of individual steps with more in-depth instructions.

http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/5945/1/1/how-to-draw-a-realistic-rose.htm

And finally one more a bit more demanding tutorial with more detailed instructions, first to draw a rose in pencil and ink, and after that with an upgrade – color it with different shades of color red, to achieve really realistic and attractive result at the same time. Of course this tutorial is much more time consuming, but the rose will look spectacular!

http://www.drawingstep.com/how-to-draw-a-rose.html

Remember, there is no right or wrong way to draw a rose, because each one of them is unique and so is our perception of these gentle flowers. I hope you have find your favorite way of drawing a rose. If you decide to show it on-line, please let me know in the comments section below!

Colors that go well together

July 29, 2014February 7, 2016 color-pencil

Colors that go together

So you wanna know what colors go good together? Well, it actually depends on the effect you want to achieve. But while in theory everything may work, in reality some colors proved to be great leading colors in certain situations (cleaning industry loves blue, which is a big no no in food industry, for instance) and same is true for certain combinations.

When you want to make a statement in sport dress, you will probably think about strong primary colors, but if you are choosing a wedding theme, anything pale (with a large addition of white) will probably work much better.

In any case, it is good to start with a color wheel. Here are the basics (and by the way, we’ll not go into details with RGB or CMY wheels, because this is way over the intention of this post):

Primary colors can’t be mixed from other colors. These are yellow, red and blue.

Secondary colors are made from two primary colors in 1 : 1 ratio. Orange is from yellow and red. Purple from red and blue. Green from blue and yellow. We can see them in color wheel exactly on the half way between yellow and red, red and blue, or blue and yellow.

Tertiary colors are combinations of two primary colors in 1 : 2 ratio. There is six combinations: orange and yellow (amber), yellow and green (chartreuse), green and blue (teal), blue and purple (violet), violet and red (magenta), or red and orange (vermilion).

Please note:
Colors on the outer circumference are fully saturated. Every inner step has higher percent of white (in this case 12,5%), what progressively makes lighter (pale) tints right to the center, where everything turns white. Red, for instance slowly turns to white through different shades of pink.

Now about the combinations. There is no definite answer, so look at the presented examples only as ideas and general directions to find you personal winner.

1. Achromatic

You don’t use colors in this case, only black, white and gray in different shades. The effect is elegant and classy, works great in business world and everywhere where we want to emphasize seriousness, loyalty and similar traditional values. It is easy on the eyes, but can soon become boring. So if we want to add a bit of drama, we can play with patterns.

2. Analogous

You take one dominant color and her closest neighbors from the color wheel. This is very often combination in nature and can work very natural on your walls, paintings or clothes. Red, orange and amber would be fine example. You need at least three colors and you have plenty of variations with saturation or tint to achieve similar effect to achromatic and monochromatic, yet having more place for playing with combinations to be more lively without sacrificing the harmony. Just don’t mix warm and cold colors or exaggerate with total number of used colors.

3. Complementary

Do you need some drama? Usage of colors which are direct opposites in the color wheel can give you exactly that. Think about red and green. Yellow and violet. Blue and orange. These color combinations are always vibrant and very effective if you want to stand out. If you want to be seen, wear green pants and red jacket. Go with pale shades of pants if you don’t want to be seen from more than one mile and use black belt to cut the contrast, if you are daring, but not showy.

4. Dichromatic

Any two colors can be used in dichromatic color scheme, but some work much better than the others. Positions in the color wheel are totally unimportant in this case. You should choose both colors after considering the final effect you want to achieve. Two color themes are quite popular for painting the walls of modern homes and most of the best combinations include pale shades of brown with other pastels (think green or purple or even blue). If you opt for more lively colors, you can very soon become too flashy.

5. Diadic

Didadic scheme is variation of dichromatic color scheme with one major limitation. You can use only colors which are separated by one (unused) color on the color wheel. Chartreuse and teal or red and purple are fine examples of this combination.

6. Monochromatic

It is variation of achromatic scheme (or vice versa), but in this case we have one leading color (maybe blue, maybe teal, maybe green) combined with the same color in different shades or tints. This way we can achieve more lively effect than at achromatic scene or make some artistic statement. Sepia photos are great example of monochromatic scheme. Be careful – this combination lacks contrast. If you need more life in your final result, go for analogous scheme.

7. Neutral

This is combination of one neutral color (sometimes called earth tone color), what basically means brown and gray in different tints, with an addition of black or any other color which neutralize them. Neutral colors are easy on the eyes, have a soothing, relaxing effect and can go well together with almost any other color, if it is used wisely.

8. Trichromatic (and Tetrachromatic)

Any three colors from the color wheel can be used, but in reality the combination works well if one of the chosen colors is dominant and other two are used only as accent. One successful way is to have an energetic color with two (or three) pale colors to keep the balance. In this groups we can find several subgroups based on the relative positions of used colors in the color wheel: triadic or tetradic (perfect triangle or square), split complementary (two neighbors of the complimentary color to the dominant color), rectangle (like square, but with two complementary pairs), split analogous (all used colors are only separated by one unused color), primary (all three primary colors are used), secondary (all three secondary colors are used) etc.

Please note: one the picture above only the colors from the corners are used in every of the three presented situations.

We could go on and on, but you probably get the idea about the colors that go well together.

What is a mandala?

June 30, 2014February 22, 2018 color-pencil

Who can define mandala?

Mandala is the expression of all life. It is the path of individuation.

Carl Jung, one of the most influential psychologist

In its simplified explanation a mandala is a symbolic representation of Universe. The word mandala comes from Sanskrit’s word for circle or completion.

A circle always had strong symbolic meanings through human history. With its closed but also never ending line it represents limitations and infinity at the same time. The transience of one’s life which is is sentenced to end at the very moment when it begins and can also expand in virtual infinity through transfer of genes.

For many centuries a circle was and still is used as a protection symbol. Person standing inside a circle can’t be hurt by evil and unknown powers from the outside. Energy inside the circle also can’t be released across the line.

Mandala is important part of spiritual and meditating rituals in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Especially in Tibetan Buddhism many sacral objects like temples are built as giant mandalas. We can think of mandala as a kind of palace with four gates, one on the each of four sides of the world. Mandala is always constructed of several layers around the center, each layer representing kind of protective barrier which should be passed to achieve a certain virtue behind. For instance: circle of fire represents wisdom.

Mandalas can be drawn, painted or built with different materials on different surfaces, but with a bit of experience we can find them in nature as well. The basic form with a circle around the center can be found in cells, blossoms, shells, crystals, solar systems and galaxies. Even the classic model of atom can be understood as kind of mandala.

Tibetan sand mandalas are well known by their beauty. A lot of time and a lot of skill is spend to construct such mandala and it is typically relatively short lived construction, but this fact is actually important part of its charm. Simple and very satisfying family activity can be picking the pebbles of different colors on the shore and using them to make a simple mandala. Alternative materials can be incorporated as well. Just check the one with shells in the photo below!

Lately mandalas are more and more used in therapy. A construction, painting and visualization of mandalas can be powerful tool to improve one’s creativity through concentration and meditation. Coloring sheets of mandalas are very popular among adults and children. Carl Jung explained mandalas as the expression of one’s intense personal grow and his most known follower Marie Louise von Franz associated them with a need to restore of something from past or creation of something new, with both being connected through kind of ascending spiral. With addition of symbolic meanings of colors we can make thing very complex in no time at all.

To make you even closer to the topic, maybe even convince you to create something new on your own, and of course to understand even better what is mandala, there are a few coloring pages of mandalas.

Meanings of colors in mandala

Choosing colors for mandala can be demanding there are several ways to do that. According to Buddhism, each color is associated with a specific meaning, feeling or emotion. But the symbolism of colors in Hinduism is not the same. And there is also the psychological meaning of colors in the Western world which should not be neglected because we are all shaped by cultural influences. Not to mention different shapes of each color what further complicates our search for a simple answer to the seemingly simple question of the meaning of color in a mandala.

Next table is not meant as a definitive dictionary. It’s better to look at it as a guideline which should be used according to our personal preferences.

RED for high energy, life force, lust, memory, passion, power, subjugation, strength
PINK for beauty, feminity, intuition, love, sensuality, youthfulness
ORANGE for creativity, friendship, heat, intuition, self-awareness, transformation, vitality
YELLOW for effort, happiness, humility, intellect, laughter, learning, light, mind, nourishment, restraint
GOLD for ambitiousness, awakening, fire, optimism, satisfaction, solar power
GREEN for caring, envy, exorcism, love of nature, meditation, natural balance, physical healing, psychic ability
BLUE for emotional healing, infinity, inner peace, life, meditation, protection, purity, sadness, wisdom
PURPLE for creativity, ideas, fascination, magic, originality, spirituality
WHITE for beginnings, contemplation, faith, focus, mental clarity, openness, peace, rest, spiritual focus, unity
BLACK for anger, death, deep thinking, emptiness, individuality, mystery, secret, unknown

Expect more mandalas in the near future!

How to draw manga

May 28, 2014February 7, 2016 color-pencil

How to draw manga for beginners

It seems some things are inevitable in certain areas. Just like a classic painter needs to learn about watercolors, everybody who learns about drawing, sooner or later bumps into manga, one of the most popular drawing styles in the world. It looks children are particularly fond of it. If you want to help your kid at drawing (you can read about numerous benefits here), it’s very likely manga with its distinguished and appealing style can be of big help.

To warm you up, I prepared some free manga clip art:

face-of-manga-girl

And some quick facts about manga:

Manga market is worth billions of dollars a year with constant growing in international markets where different variations of manga were developed.

Word manga is of Chinese origin and can be translated as ‘whimsical drawings’ and is used for comics originally published in Japan. But in Japan manga is used for all kinds of cartoons and anime is used for all kinds of animated movies.

Manga cartoons are typically published in magazines (first was published in 1874) with many different series, each presented with only single episode. The most popular episodes not only survive, but can be also republished in stand alone editions and animated (what produced so called anime).

Although most of people in the West experience manga in vibrant colors, majority of this genre is produced in black and white. To achieve more visually appealing and dramatic effect, different patterns are typically used for characters, backgrounds and details.
Classic manga (published in Japan) is by no means limited to kids-only market. It deals with many adult themes and even if the profile of the reader is a child, it can be much more complex and dark than the usual comic for kids in the West.

So you want to learn how to draw manga?

Web is full of lessons, but majority of good stuff is payable. Before you dive into unnecessary expenses, I prepared few useful links to help you started. I hope you can benefit from them.

Tips on drawing faces:

http://howtodrawmangas.com/post/30373665633/how-to-draw-manga-faces

Drawing hair is never easy and manga has its own special rules:

To learn more about coloring and inking manga hair, visit:

And many details, like female eyes:

http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/pages/tutorial_female_eyes

When you are ready, you can develop full characters:

http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Manga-Characters

Then put them in action:

http://www.drawinghowtodraw.com/stepbystepdrawinglessons/2010/04/anime-action-scenes-how-to-draw-manga-action-poses-step-by-step-lesson/

Beware – the lesson above is only the first in the series (link to part two is included at the bottom of the page)

O.k., that’s for start. I wish you a lot of inspiration and have fun!

Meanings of colors

April 27, 2014February 7, 2016 color-pencil

Meanings of colors …

It’s hard to imagine anything related with drawing without asking few questions about colors and their meanings. It’s obvious they posses tremendous power on our moods and can even trigger certain emotions.

This means when we use particular color, we are consciously or unconsciously making several decisions. One of them is of course revealing how we feel in certain moment and about certain theme. Painting a sun black is definitely expression of positive feelings, for instance.

Another important decision is our message. Considering drawing or painting is sort of communication, we are talking to our audience. With some skill and right set of colors we can effect their emotions too. We can depress and we can inspire.

All colors also carry important symbolism which is conditioned with history, geography and other factors. So I can provide only approximate list of colors with their meanings. Use it with caution.

List of colors with positive and negative meanings

Blue: calmness                             coldness

Red: action                                   aggression

Yellow: optimism                        childishness

Purple: luxury                             vanity

Orange: self-confidence             superficiality

Green: freshness                         inexperience

Brown: practicality                    predictability

Black: power                         evilness

Gray: timelessness                    boredom

White: purity                             emptiness

What about numerous tones and shades? Color wheels have so much more than basic colors to offer!

Well, this is certainly a theme for many hours of debate, but this post should cover the basics. Every color can be used and abused and there is time and place for both in our lives.

Thanks for your visit. Have a colorful day!

Drawing paper for kids

March 24, 2014February 7, 2016 color-pencil

What kind of drawing paper is best for children?

Everything related with kids should be no brainer and choosing a paper for drawing is no exception. Quality first, right?

Well, kind of … Sure, quality is important and we all want to give only the best to our children, but in reality we almost always limited: with time, space, money, experience, … You name it!

So this post is not about the obvious theoretical part – give kids the best possible material, but rather how to make the best out of real life situation. Here are the main points to consider:

Quality counts

Yes, just like kids (and everybody else) need quality color pencils, they need quality paper too. One simple method to compare different sorts of paper is their weight. 80 g / m2 is standard office paper and it is probably a standard for children’s drawings as well. But this kind of paper is barely good for color pencils and it is not useful for markers or watercolors.

So always try to have something of better quality at least for special occasions. If you already know you need drawing sheets of better quality, try to buy them when they are on discount or get them in bulk or in roles where you can save a lot of money if you cut the sheets accordingly to your needs.

Less is more

Kids love to see a lot of different colors, but have too much at the same time will confuse them and they will make a mess of them. Twelve colors is good for start, twenty four is for advanced projects and some experiments.

Same is true with paper. Stick to one or two kinds and occasionally test something new. Sometimes try something fancy, but in most cases every change will be appreciated. Envelopes, colorful wrapping paper, old boxes, paper bags, old forms, … , everything counts!

Just don’t exaggerate. Too much of everything can be confusing.

Mix

Instead of adding new colors, you will very likely achieve more with addition of new drawing tools as crayons, chalks or temperas. Instead of adding new sorts of paper you should probably think about new surfaces like glass, pavement, wood, … All this can be endless source of inspiration.

Don’t forget collages. Kids love to explore new techniques, so a pair of scissors (well, we can make full article about them too, right?), scotch tape and some universal glue will make valuable addition to your drawing adventures. to make impressive collages, always have some old magazines handy and if you have some old playing cards, stickers and similar items, you are already on your way to create something memorable.

Drawing for beginners

February 22, 2014February 7, 2016 color-pencil

“I can’t draw!” is no excuse. Everybody can learn drawing at any age. There is no guarantee he or she will become world famous artist, but just about everybody can learn to make beautiful pictures if he is only willing to put some effort in learning. Serious learning involves a teacher who can not only draw, but can also explain some basics of using the pencil and paper to produce satisfactory results.

If you want to start the adventure in the amazing world of graphic arts, try to focus on next areas:

1. Observation

Draw by observation of objects and people, not by the pictures of objects and people. Having a chance to touch the object, to follow the lines around it and than repeat the same moves with a pencil on the paper can be great practice. The most common mistake at drawing is, believe it or not, if we don’t look at object of drawing. Our brain is designed in the way we actually tend to draw the things as we think they look, not as they actually look.

Great exercise is drawing lines without watching at the paper while the pencil is still moving. With draw completely new things you can avoid ‘prejudices’ you brain already has on many everyday objects. After a while you will learn to observe known objects in completely new light.

2. Imagination

Encourage drawing of imaginary beings and events. Ability to draw is closely related with ability to observe. If you can’t notice the details, you really can’t draw them. This can be trained really well, but don’t forget the iamginary part without which a drawing can’t become an art piece. This means drawing from imagination, experimenting with shades and colors, using different drawing techniques …

Show great examples of the work only after practice. If you do that before, our mind is designed to copy and this will not help to imaginary part of the brain.

3. Use proper tools

There are many drawing tools available and some of them are designed to make the process of drawing as easy as possible. But you should never skip the basics. This means graphite pencils grade B (B stands for soft, H for hard pencils), soft white plastic eraser and white paper.

Charcoal, chalk, water colors, crayons, markers, color pencils are all great, all can serve different purposes, but learning in general starts with a graphite pencil. It is as simple as that.

When you master the basics, the world is your oyster. You may even try yourself at silverpoint technique!

4. Help

Good teacher will help pupils with asking questions, not giving explicit instructions. Children who acquired skills through answering the questions (which should not be too direct), will improve faster and become much more self confident.

It is of course absolutely clear there will be no progress without some criticism. Good critic will always find a way to praise at least some aspect of the work before he draw attention to mistakes. Devastating criticism in never constructive, it can only demoralize the student.

5. Practice

More is still better. But you should always make it fun, never boring. Practice details, every great picture is made of tiny details, so there is always a way to find small, doable projects, where improvement can be visible and useful in relatively short time.

Don’t spend too much time on correcting mistakes. Try to use them as a source of inspiration. Errors initiated many great inventions!

How to improve pencil grip?

January 29, 2014February 7, 2016 color-pencil

Improving pencil grip…

Correct pencil grip is one of most important factors in developing fine motor skills of every child. For wide variety of reasons many kids hold pencils and other drawing tools awkwardly, with too many fingers, with wrongly placed fingers (for instance with a thumb on the top or bottom of other fingers), with crooked wrist and so on.

All these incorrect techniques learned in early age can be a problem in later developmental stages, typically shown in grade school at learning to write letters. Children with incorrect pencil grasp development can have pretty hard time in school for very simple reason – their hands become tired much sooner than they should be.

Most parents know about tripod pencil grip which can be easier to achieve with triangle pencils pencils. There is also quadropod pencil grip (with additional support of the pencil by ring finger) which is also marked as ‘correct’, although it allows slightly lower mobility.

How to help a kid with crooked grasp or any other problematic sort of grip?

First we should know how old is a child. If it already knows how to write, if doesn’t have problems with speed, if the grip is not painful or limit child’s abilities to write in any other way, don’t waste time and energy on fixing something what apparently already works well.

For younger children is probably worth a try to improve the grip. But there is still one simple rule: don’t force, make it playful. There are numerous tools (triangle pencil is just a start) which can be used to achieve the ultimate goal and couple of nice little helpers are shown in the video below:

In the same video you can also learn how to make one of these powerful tools in very simple way.

And there are few specific exercises which proved to help improving pencil grip through many years of experience. Remember, this is only a small selection. You probably already know how can making different objects from playdough or stringing beads improve a grasp. All hand play activities can be helpful and every child is a specific story.

1. Use clothes pegs, plastic tweezers to pick small objects like beans, grains, coins or pebbles. Pick them from the tale and release them in a bottle. This should be done with thumb and index finger, not with thumb and any of other fingers! If you want to make it more difficult, mix two sorts of objects and tell the kid to sort two bottles. Something similar Cinderella had to do if she wanted to the ball.

2. Tearing and crumpling paper is great exercise for strengthening different groups of muscles of one’s hand. Pieces of paper can be used it all sorts of projects. Kids will make a ball spontaneously. To add a bit of difficultness, encourage him to make it with one hand only. Then with the other hand. And finally with fingers only.

3. With scissors a whole new world of activities opens. Kids love to cut out different shapes from magazines, or simply cut paper to pieces. Next step is of course to sort small pieces by colors and shapes and glue them into interesting mosaics.

4. Talking about mosaics – collect a lot of pebbles, sort them by colors and try to make a mandala. You can start with a nice picture, drawn with a chalk. Drawing with chalks on the pavement or similar surface is great to develop proper hand movements with a whole hand what can be gradually transferred in fine motor skills.

5. Transfer water from full container to the empty container with a sponge or more sponges. This is great exercise for strengthen a wrist. Toys like Lego bricks, playing cards, puzzles will improve fine motor skills in variety of ways as well.

6. Coloring pages are great way to measure the progress. If you can put them on vertical surface, different muscles will have to cooperate and fine motor skills will improve accordingly. Using short pencils or crayons will force children to use their fingers more efficiently.

Would you like to share your experience with our readers?

How to draw a tiger?

December 24, 2013February 7, 2016 color-pencil

Drawing for kids can be pretty predictable. Sooner or later they will want to draw some kind of animal. Yes, bigger is still better and it is hard to find anything bigger than a tiger. O.k., a bear is bigger. And a whale. And several mythological creatures. But now I am straying from the subject.

I checked the web to help all the lazy parents who would like to learn the basics of drawing in comfort of their homes. Drawing a tiger is not the easiest task on the world, so I recommend to check next links which in my opinion belong among best possible lessons on the subject. Than devote few minutes a day to training and in a week or two your tigers will rock

So – how to draw a tiger?

Easiest (and still realistic) way is presented on this address:

http://www.wedrawanimals.com/how-to-draw-a-tiger/

It is simple step by step approach which even a five year old can follow.

Start with a pencil, so you could erase unnecessary lines when all the components of your tiger will be done. While scientists know only eight subspecies of tiger at the moment you can draw as many as you want with a set of colored pens.

By the way, you can download steps as an image and have it as your personal cheat sheet off line.

Next variation of tiger is a bit harder to draw in my opinion because it doesn’t use circles and other closed lines. On the other hand you don’t have to erase anything if you don’t make any mistakes. I like the presentation with two colors of lines (in red is only the new part of drawing):

http://artforkidshub.com/how-to-draw-a-tiger/

For the third, last and by far most demanding way of tiger drawing I have chosen a video. The result is really impressive, but the procedure is probably way too much for a beginner, so look at it more as an inspiration and motivation: