We briefed this as one diagonal beat of rescue rather than a calm icon, because the Markandeya legend lives in the half-second when Yama's noose tightens and Shiva erupts from the lingam. Single-vignette grammar lets the boy stay anchored low and small at the stone while the action surges up and across the panel — your eye reads cling, then burst, then the buffalo recoiling, in that order. The medium-light fill keeps the vermilion ground open above Shiva so the lunge has room to swing; an earlier draft packed in attendant ganas and the kick lost its snap. Indigo-blue for Shiva against the red and the leaf-green Yama is the old Nakashi way of carrying drama on flat colour alone, no shadow needed.