Designing: Melanistic Pastel

Created: 6 March 2021, 12:05:19 UTC

Last updated: 1 April 2025, 11:50:46 UTC

Melanistic Pastel

Examples

Basics

Melanistic pastel creates a dark, banded wash over the ketucari's coat similar to the patterning found on super ghi ball pythons. You can find examples HERE.
Bullet; White

Melanistic pastel requires both homozygous lace (also known as acid) and the melanistic modifier (+Me) in order to express.
The melanistic modifier can be carried on heterozygous lace (nLc+Me) but will not express.
Bullet; White

The melanistic modifier has a 20% chance of passing.

Color

Melanistic pastel must be a darker color of your chosen base, with a minor deviation in hue. It can also be a fully desaturated color of the base, as long as it is darker. Melanistic pastel may be pure black. It must always show some of the base color beneath.

These colors would be acceptable for this base color. They are either a darker version of the base, or a darker and desaturated version of the base. The last color on the right shows a minor deviation in hue, and is slightly more yellow than the base itself. Notice that this small change is not overbearing.

These colors would be unacceptable for melanistic pastel. They are either lighter than the base coat or have too drastic a hue shift.

Range

Melanistic pastel should be more extensive than both acid and lace. It should cover the majority of the top line, and can fade out
along the legs and underbelly. It must cover enough of the body that it is immediately recognizable.

Interaction with Other Markings

All markings can be layered under or over melanistic pastel.
Bullet; White

Melanistic pastel can be influenced by inferno, vapor, segment, and pale. Vapor paired with melanistic pastel may bypass the 50% coverage rule and show up wherever the melanistic pastel shows. Remember you must still have some base coat visible.

Melanistic pastel may be affected by Empty, allowing it to appear as an outline or with a cutout.

Accents

Here are some small accents you can add to your designs to make them more unique!

Melanistic may have a subtle gradient that fades into the base coat, like below.