self-portrait occupies the comfortable middle of the value scale, avoiding both extremes to hold the eye in a sustained middle grey. Yellow, ochre, sienna: warm hues deployed as the palette's primary energy. Chroma hovers near zero; colour declares itself through subtle shifts in hue rather than outright saturation. The saturated accent, #76402B, registers at 4.8% - sparse enough to feel like a deliberate surprise. From deepest dark to palest light, the palette traverses 57 units of the value scale - a span that creates natural depth.