The high-key values of bird-and-flower painting give it an effulgent, almost bleached quality. The dominant temperature is warm, with earth tones and fire-hues setting the emotional key. Chroma is kept low across all colours, producing the soft, enveloping quality that characterises tonal painting. #DCB9A6 at 31.0% of the palette: an overwhelming presence that pulls all other colours into its gravitational field. #6F4A44 delivers the chromatic peak at only 3.7% - a small shot of colour with outsized visual impact. From deepest dark to palest light, the palette traverses 60 units of the value scale - a span that creates natural depth.