Tar Pit
Examples
Basics
Tar pit is a hard-edged marking that creates a darker color on the underside. In your ketucari's genotype, tar pit is denoted by the letters "nTpt" (heterozygous) or "TptTpt" (homozygous). In its heterozygous form, tar pit has a pass rate of 50%. Homozygous tar pit has a 75% pass rate.
Color
Tar pit 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. Tar pit may be pure black.
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 tar pit. They are either lighter than the base coat or have too drastic a hue shift.
Range
There is no minimum for tar pit, but it must always be visible (unless a white marking covers it) and cover at least 10% of the underside. Below is the maximum range for tar pit.
Our starter Eraku has an example of 'absolute minimum' we look for to ensure Washout (and other genes like it such as Mud and Tar Pit) are present:
Interaction with Other Markings
The only marking tar pit must go over is pangare. All others may be layered over it. Tar pit can be influenced by inferno, vapor, and segment. Dusky points must be distinguished from tar pit when occurring in the same ketucari.
Accents
Here are some small accents you can add to your designs to make them more unique! This gene must be predominantly hard-edged, but may have small areas that fade out, such as the white washout near Ashoka's eyes.
You may use up to three shades of the same hue in tar pit. These colors must be layered inside of each other, like below. Be careful with how you layer the colors and create the edges, as your design will be rejected if it too closely resembles merle.
Tar pit may have a subtle gradient, like below. Gradients that are too overbearing will be rejected.
Small cut-outs may be present in the marking, like below. While tar pit generally calls for "natural" edges, stylization is allowed to some extent. Excessive stylization (such as making your ketucari look like it has tribal tattoos) will cause the design to be rejected. While the examples below show washout stylization, the same thing can be done with tar pit.
