Star Plague - Quick Markers Set

A plague that reached the stars

Cosmic plague is one of the strongest images in dark science fiction. A crew that has come back from deep space changed looks different from a classic undead: skin shows through under the suit by turns pale and inflamed, the gear is chipped and the shadows have more of a night blue than a coal black. It is precisely the contradiction between civilized technology and a decaying body that makes this subject so compelling.

How the shades divide up

Vampire Flesh holds the basic pallor of the skin, and Reddish Flesh is added where tissue is inflamed or grazed, that is, around wounds, on joints and at the edges of a mask. Night Blue takes the place of an ordinary shadow so that the result does not read as deathly flat. Black closes the deepest places, and White Shadow lightens the tops of the edges without bleaching the color out.

A quick route to the table

The set is built for pace. The body is filled in with the pale tone, the inflamed places are touched with the reddened one, the shadows are let in with the dark blue and the edges are gone over with the lightest shade. Four steps, no mixing, no palette. Anyone who wants to go further adds a gloss layer onto slime and wounds once it is dry, because the contrast between a matte body and a glossy detail works best on this motif.

A note on storage

The marker pens are stored tip down so that the tip stays saturated, and they are shaken before every session. Otherwise the pigment settles and the first stroke comes out watery. The cap has to seat all the way home, because a tip left unclosed dries out within a few days.