Engraved Vigil Sky

Old French engraver, to dig in — past-participle of engrave. As a color modifier, engraved implies a clear-and-precisely-cut quality, the crisp color of Albrecht-Dürer-and-Hogarth hand-pulled engraving-print fine-line incised-image. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and inscribed in usage.

Latin vigilia, night-watch. As a color modifier, vigil implies a night-watch-and-prayer quality, the visual register of medieval-monastic-and-Roman-Catholic night-watch-and-vigil monastic-and-religious-vigil candlelit-and-lantern-light night-vigil surfaces under medieval-monastic-vigil candlelit-and-lantern light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to vesper and mass in usage.

The blue of a clear sky at noon — produced by Rayleigh scattering, the preferential dispersion of shorter wavelengths through atmospheric molecules. Air itself is colorless; the color we see is sunlight scattered toward our eyes by every cubic kilometer above. The reference shade is mid-latitude noon under a high pressure system: a clean, slightly green-shifted blue with the luminous depth of light scattered across an entire hemisphere of air.