--- title: "T_398, full record | Crucible Year" url: https://peteryuill.art/archive/works/T_398 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_398 [The work as shown](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_398). 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 - **Phase:** P4 S14 - **Shown on the site:** yes (V23 rating of 5.0 or higher) ## Measured · V23 (v23.11) - **V23 rating:** 5.8 - **Form:** 2 - **Tonal depth:** 1.2 - **Layering:** 3 - **Composition:** 2 - **Material and surface:** 1.8 - **Ink cover:** 83% - **Dark share:** 54% - **Tonal steps:** 6 - **Flaws named by the reads:** other 12, water stain 3 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_398] ![T_398, tone-stretched] ![T_398, classed by brightness] 83% of the sheet carries ink TONAL STEPS ## 6 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: 0.038 (under 0.045 reads as flat). FIVE READS ## Five reads, agreeing on 3 of 5 qualities. Each quality placed on its ladder by each read, and the mean the engine keeps. Where reads differ, they differ by one rung; close calls resolve down. READ 1 READ 2 READ 3 READ 4 READ 5 MEAN Form 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2.0 Tonal depth 1 THIN 1 THIN 2 MODELLED 1 THIN 1 THIN 1.2 Layering 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3.0 Composition 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2.0 Material and surface 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 1 FLAWED 2 SOUND 1.8 ### READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS “This sheet works in the same radial, layered arc style as R3. The passes are well ordered and legible, but the dark masses are flat inside and the heavy lower-right slab crowds the composition. The material is sound apart from minor marks.” Form · BUILT Fan and arc segments hold clean walls following a radial swing; the large lower-right block is a heavy filled slab with stiff, stacked rectangular edges. WEAKEST Bulky dark rectangular slab filling bottom right STRONGEST Curved arc bands around the fan's hub Tonal depth · THIN Dark interior modulation 0.038 measures flat; fan and right block are uniform inside, with tone changing mainly at overlapping pass edges. Grey arcs give some range. WEAKEST Flat black interior of the large upper fan STRONGEST Translucent grey arc bands at left Layering · ORDERED Many translucent passes overlap in a readable order across arcs and right-hand rectangles; overlaps stay legible and build depth, though the darkest areas close up. WEAKEST Right block passes merge toward dark uniformity STRONGEST Stacked translucent arcs fanning at upper left Composition · WORKING Strong radial rotation around the central hub, with shaped empty paper lower left; the right half is weighted and crowded, so the balance tips heavily. WEAKEST Crowded heavy mass in bottom right STRONGEST Radial swing around the hub at centre Material and surface · SOUND The ink is controlled with crisp pass edges. There is a stray thin line in the top-right paper, faint crease marks in the right block and a cloudy pale wash below the hub. WEAKEST Crease-like marks across the right dark block STRONGEST Clean translucent edges of grey arc passes FLAWS ## 6 distinct places, 1 major. Each read must name every flaw and where it is, in a ninth of the sheet. Here the reads named flaws in 6 distinct places, 15 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. A major flaw holds Material and surface at rung 1. RULE 1 Two tonal steps or fewer Tonal depth held at rung 1. 6 steps: not applied RULE 2 A major flaw Material held at rung 1. Mild waves in the unmounted paper are never a flaw. 1 major flaw: applied RULE 3 Any quality below 0.5 The rating cannot exceed 4. lowest 1.2 RULE 4 At least two valid reads A read that breaks the reply format is discarded. 5 of 5 valid THE ARITHMETIC ## V23 rating 5.8. 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 2.00 (2.0 + 1.2 + 3.0 + 2.0 + 1.8) ÷ 5 → RAW 5.00 1 + 2 × 2.00 → RATING 5.8 5 + 2.086 × (5.00 − 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)