Mixing recipe
How to mix sky blue
Target
#87BCE0
Recipe mixes to #8ABCE1
A daylight sky blue is Cerulean Blue in white, one part to two. Cerulean is a gentle, opaque blue with a slight green lean, which is what a clear sky has near the horizon. Two tubes, both in a common box.
The recipe
Step by step
Build the pile from the biggest, lightest component and work toward the strongest tinter. Check the pile against each swatch before moving on.
- Start with 2 parts Titanium Whitepile #F6F6F4
- Work in 1 part Cerulean Bluepile #8ABCE1
What goes wrong
Ultramarine in place of Cerulean looks like the same idea but comes out a violet-leaning blue, which reads as a dusk sky rather than daylight. If the mix is too green, a speck of Ultramarine alongside the Cerulean corrects it. For the sky higher up, add more white and a touch more Ultramarine; the zenith is both lighter and more violet than the horizon.
Related colors
Results vary with brand, lighting and medium. Acrylic dries a touch darker than it looks wet. Treat this as a mixing aid, not a lab instrument: it tells you which tubes to reach for and roughly in what proportion. Fine-tune the last stretch by eye.