I am a super color nerd! So when I started thinking about what color does blue go with, I KNEW I had to make a color wheel of blue and mix it with all the colors of the rainbow to figure it out for myself!
Today we are going to take a super deep dive into all things blue! If I had to pick my favorite blue it would be teal or turquoise, or maybe a super dark navy!
If you can't decide your favorite color of blue either, this post might just be for you!
Mixing Blue With All The Colors of the Rainbow
What Color Does Blue and Red Make?
This one is super easy! Purple! Mixing equal amounts of a true red and a true blue together will make a really pretty (normal) purple color! This can also be accomplished by mixing magenta with cyan in the CMYK color space on your computer.
What Color Does Blue and Orange Make?
Blue and orange is actually the primary color blue and then half red and half yellow. Any time you have a mix of all the primary colors you are going to start getting into a muddier area! This just turned into a really muddy brown color.
What Color Does Blue and Yellow Make?
Yay! We are back to mixing primary colors so mixing blue and yellow will make a really pretty true green!
What Color Does Blue and Green Make?
Oh my gosh… this is my jam! Blue mixed with green makes a beautiful aqua or teal color. As an artist I tend to like a more blueish teal, but you could make a more green blue color by adding more green!
What Color Does Blue and Purple Make?
Blue mixed with purple makes a really pretty lighter periwinkle purple color. It is brighter than a plain 50/50 mix of just red and blue.
Video Showing Mixing Colors With Blue
I thought you would like to see all the colors mixing in action! Here is a video showing mixing all the colors of the rainbow with blue!
Color Theory and Mixing Blue With Other Colors
There are all different shades of blue… think from a dark blue color like navy to lighter blue like cornflower.
That said a “true blue” seems to me to be a bright blue, rather than having any deeper shades in it.
Warm Blue
Warm blues have more of a purple tint. This comes from being on the “warm” side of the color wheel that includes the red primary color which is warm.
You can mix warmer blue by adding a hint of red or even purple to primary blue.
Cobalt blue
Ultramarine blue
Cool Blue
A cool blue is closer to yellow on the color wheel and will tend more towards green. This comes from being on the “cool” side of the color wheel that includes the yellow primary color which is sometimes a cool color when it has a green undertone.
Prussian blue
Cerulean blue
Phthalo blue
The Color Blue FAQs
Additional Nerdy Blue Thoughts
Where Does The Color Blue Come From?
According to Wikipedia, “Blue pigments were originally made from minerals such as lapis lazuli, cobalt and azurite, and blue dyes were made from plants; usually woad in Europe, and Indigofera tinctoria, or true indigo, in Asia and Africa.”
As an artist I love researching the history of colors and how they became a part of color wheel! Early artists ground up the minerals to create pigments that they mixed with something like linseed oil to make OIL PAINTS. How freaking cool is that?
Early fabric workers used plants to dye their fabric blue, but it was very less common than reds, yellows and browns which are easily found in nature.
Lapis lazuli is mined in Afghanistan which of course has a long history of conflict and strife (as well as a terrible history of treating women, but that is a post for another day!)
Why Is There So Much Blue In The Sky and Oceans?
When we think about blue, there is a LOT of it in the sky and oceans as a color!
According to a REALLY COOL article about why the sky and water are blue, “Raleigh Scattering” is why we see the sky as blue (we can see tiny shorter blue wavelengths) and we see the ocean as blue because the water is sucking up all the red wavelengths of light.
Why Is There So Little Blue In Nature?
With all the blue above and below, it is easy to forget that there is so little blue in nature. There is a random blue jay blue rainforest frog or blue butterfly, but overall there is a lot more green, brown and red.
One reason that there is little blue diversity in animals is that there aren't many blue things in plants. Flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp that are pink… there are no blue shrimp!
Additional Resource: Why Is The Color Blue So Rare In Nature?
What Does The Color Blue Represent Around The World?
This article about blue has such an interesting list of how blue is perceived geographically! For example, in Latin America (a Catholic majority country) blue is a sign of hope and in Aztec culture it was a signal for sacrifice.