Hanna sent me samples of the Holbein Limited Edition watermelon colors. Unsurprisingly, it’s a red and a green. They are only sold in Asia. Which means: If you don’t live in / travel to Asia and you like the colors, you have to mix them yourself.
Watermelon Red
The red is made from four pigments (PR233, PO73, PR254, PV19). It is a muted red which lies between orange and pink somehow. Which sounds like a red, but it feels a bit different, it feels less solid than a pyroll or perylene red (PR178, PR254). When I swatched the red, it reminded me somewhat of Quin. Coral (PR209). But in fact , it was even closer to PR207. In the picture below you see Watermelon Red besides Schmincke Quin. Red Light (PR207).
That’s where I started with my mixing attempts. My goal was to use fewer pigments than the original to make the mix more approachable. First I chose Schmincke Quin. Red Light (PR207) and Potters Pink (PR233) and mixed them together. But that wasn’t orange enough. After some trial and error landed at PR207, PO73 and PR233. It makes a nice comparable mix.
But then I thought that PO73 might not be as widely used as other oranges and PR207 isn’t a pigment that many people own. So I made another mix. I used Quin. Coral (PR209) and Winsor and Newton Transparent Orange (DPP) with Potters Pink (PR233). Quin. Coral leans a bit more towards pink compared to Quin. Red Light (PR207). To balance that, I chose an orange that leans more towards yellow. And it worked! It’s another nice duplicate.
Watermelon Peel Green
Watermelon Peel Green is a nice muted, blue leaning green with black granulation. It’s made with five pigments (PBk11, PY53, PY74, PB15, PG7). The closest colors I own are Perylene Green (PBk31) and Chromium Oxide Green Dark (PG17). But the Watermelon Peel Green has a lot more depth than both of these single pigment colors.
I wasn’t sure where to start with mixing because, again, I wanted to use fewer pigments. I only knew I wanted to use Mars Black (PBk11, which is labeled wrong in the picture below; it’s not PBk7, it’s PBk11) for the black granulation. I started with Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7). Maybe not the wisest decision. I only got some nice mixes on the second page:
- Mars Black, Perylene green and a bit of Phthalo Green Yellow Shade (PG36).
- Mars Black, Phthalo Turquoise (PB16) and Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65). Instead of PY65 it’s also possible to take PY110. But because the original color feels a bit denser and more opaque, PY65 is a better fit.
Somehow none of my mixes got the feeling of the original Watermelon Peel Green. But two pages of mixing is enough.
Conclusion
I have the number of pigments and the knowledge to mix close enough colors to the originals. If I would use these colors frequently, I would mix tube colors in a pan. But it’s certainly a lot easier to buy them already mixed as a convenience color. It’s hard to get the colors completely right, especially because they contain so many pigments. Overall it was a fun mixing challenge and a good exercise for mixing colors!