--- title: "T_397, full record | Crucible Year" url: https://peteryuill.art/archive/works/T_397 description: "Crucible Year: a continuous year of sumi ink painting on paper by Peter Yuill, begun 29 December 2025." source: generated from the Crucible Year master database --- Archive · full record # T_397 [The work as shown](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_397). Every value below comes from vae.db, the master database of the Crucible Year. ## Recorded - **Date:** 2026.10.25, day 301 - **Size:** 97 × 180 cm - **Paper:** S13, Tianxuan Ge Dot Ink Becomes Gold, semi-cooked (self-sized), aged - **Inks:** MB6, MB8, MB9, MB10, MC - **Phase:** P4 S14 - **Shown on the site:** yes (V23 rating of 5.0 or higher) ## Measured · V23 (v23.11) - **V23 rating:** 9 - **Form:** 3 - **Tonal depth:** 3 - **Layering:** 3 - **Composition:** 3 - **Material and surface:** 2 - **Ink cover:** 70% - **Dark share:** 60% - **Tonal steps:** 3 - **Flaws named by the reads:** other 7, tide line 3, ring 2, water stain 1 The V23 rating runs from 1 to 9, with 5 the middle of this body of work. It is the engine's reading, and the reference the archive is measured against. ## Peter's own rating - **Rating:** 6.5 Peter's rating is his own eye, not the engine's, and he never gives a 10. > “There is always something that can be done better.” Peter Yuill · 2026.07.02 ## How the number was made Read by the Visual Analysis Engine, version 23.11, on 2026.10.26: measured by code, then read 5 times by Claude Opus 5.5 against three reference paintings (R1 to R3), each read independent of the others. [How the engine works](https://peteryuill.art/method). WHAT THE CODE SEES ## Three views of one sheet. Left, the photograph. Centre, the tone stretch the model is shown beside it: the darkest 45% of tones spread over the whole range, so flat black, banding and stains show. Right, every pixel as the measuring code classes it: cyan black ink, deep teal translucent grey, stone the palest ink, near black bare paper. ![T_397] ![T_397, tone-stretched] ![T_397, classed by brightness] 70% of the sheet carries ink TONAL STEPS ## 3 families of tone. Every inked pixel's brightness in 64 bins, smoothed; each circled peak holds at least 4% of the ink. Life inside the black: 0.063 (under 0.045 reads as flat). FIVE READS ## Five reads, one answer. Each quality placed on its ladder by each read, and the mean the engine keeps. READ 1 READ 2 READ 3 READ 4 READ 5 MEAN Form 3 FLUENT 3 FLUENT 3 FLUENT 3 FLUENT 3 FLUENT 3.0 Tonal depth 3 DEEP 3 DEEP 3 DEEP 3 DEEP 3 DEEP 3.0 Layering 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3.0 Composition 3 COMMANDING 3 COMMANDING 3 COMMANDING 3 COMMANDING 3 COMMANDING 3.0 Material and surface 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2.0 ### READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS “A strong spiral of translucent layered arcs, close to R3. Tone and layering are fluent and legible, and the composition carries the eye inward. Small grey drips in the white centre keep the surface at sound.” Form · FLUENT Arc strokes follow the spiral's travel from the tight centre coil out to the broad outer bands; edges hold. Some lower-left blocks read a little squared off. WEAKEST Blocky rectangular slabs at the lower-left spiral edge STRONGEST Tight inner spiral coil of arcing strokes Tonal depth · DEEP Modulation 0.063. The tone-stretched view shows grain, dry-brush and stepped greys inside the dark bands, with a wide grey range from pale to black. WEAKEST Upper-centre mid-grey band, fairly even STRONGEST Right outer dark bands with grain and stepped density Layering · ORDERED Many translucent arc passes overlap in a readable sequence that builds the spiral's depth, similar to R3, though slightly less clear in the dense upper area. WEAKEST Dense upper-left overlaps merge somewhat STRONGEST Translucent stacked arcs on the right half Composition · COMMANDING The off-centre spiral drives movement from the outer bands into the coil. The white eye is shaped and the two top-left diagonals counter the mass; the left paper is a little passive. WEAKEST Empty left third, held only by two diagonal strokes STRONGEST Spiral pulling the eye into the white centre Material and surface · SOUND The ink is controlled and the dry-brush is used. Small grey drip spots sit in the white centre, there is a faint curved mark in the lower-right grey block, and specks at the left edge. The red drops are deliberate colour. WEAKEST Grey drip spots in the white centre STRONGEST Dry-brush grain at the arc edges FLAWS ## 4 distinct places, 0 major. Each read must name every flaw and where it is, in a ninth of the sheet. Here the reads named flaws in 4 distinct places, 13 mentions in all across 5 reads; the number in each ninth is how many times a flaw was named there. Reads agreeing on a place strengthen the evidence for one flaw; they do not multiply it. RULE 1 Two tonal steps or fewer Tonal depth held at rung 1. 3 steps: not applied RULE 2 A major flaw Material held at rung 1. Mild waves in the unmounted paper are never a flaw. none named RULE 3 Any quality below 0.5 The rating cannot exceed 4. lowest 2.0 RULE 4 At least two valid reads A read that breaks the reply format is discarded. 5 of 5 valid THE ARITHMETIC ## V23 rating 9.0. Engine v23.11, 5 reads. Fixed arithmetic, the same for every painting; the constants were set on 24 randomly chosen paintings so the median sheet scores 5. The scale is relative to this archive, not to painting in general, and a difference of less than half a point between two paintings is noise. MEAN RUNG 2.80 (3.0 + 3.0 + 3.0 + 3.0 + 2.0) ÷ 5 → RAW 6.60 1 + 2 × 2.80 → RATING 9.0 5 + 2.086 × (6.60 − 4.60) ## Where next [Every record the full archive](https://peteryuill.art/archive)[2026.10.25 every painting from this date](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-10-25)