self-portrait occupies the comfortable middle of the value scale, avoiding both extremes to hold the eye in a sustained middle grey. The palette orchestrates warmth above all else - reds, ambers, and siennas take the lead. Chroma hovers near zero; colour declares itself through subtle shifts in hue rather than outright saturation. The most saturated colour, #DBC299, is reserved to 2.5% of the surface, where it acts as a focal punctuation. 65 units of value range underpin the palette's structural clarity: the eye always knows where light falls.