--- title: "T_402, full record | Crucible Year" url: https://peteryuill.art/archive/works/T_402 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_402 [The work as shown](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_402). Every value below comes from vae.db, the master database of the Crucible Year. ## Recorded - **Date:** 2026.10.26, day 302 - **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:** 6.3 - **Form:** 2.4 - **Tonal depth:** 2 - **Layering:** 3 - **Composition:** 2 - **Material and surface:** 1.2 - **Ink cover:** 90% - **Dark share:** 68% - **Tonal steps:** 3 - **Flaws named by the reads:** other 5, water stain 9 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_402] ![T_402, tone-stretched] ![T_402, classed by brightness] 90% 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: 0.049 (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 3 FLUENT 3 FLUENT 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2.4 Tonal depth 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2.0 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 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1.2 ### READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS “This is a close relative of R3, with layered radial fans either side of a central gap. It is heavier and more crowded, its right dark mass is less modelled inside, and small drips sit at the bottom centre.” Form · FLUENT Fan-shaped passes follow the brush's curved travel with clean, dry-edged ends at the central gap; the right dark block is bulky but still holds its arc. WEAKEST Heavy dark fan block in right mass, slightly slab-like STRONGEST Stepped arc bands of the left fan Tonal depth · MODELLED The left fan steps its density across overlapping bands. The right dark mass shows only faint grain and has modulation of 0.049, barely above flat. WEAKEST Right dark mass interior, close to one dense tone STRONGEST Left fan's stepped greys from pale rim to dark Layering · ORDERED Many translucent arc passes overlap in a readable order on both sides. The overlaps build depth, though the right side's darkest layers are hard to tell apart. WEAKEST Deep right overlaps where passes merge toward black STRONGEST Translucent overlapping fan passes on the left Composition · WORKING Two radiating fans on either side of a vertical gap create a strong focus, but 90% ink coverage leaves the edges crowded. The right mass is heavy and sits weightily. WEAKEST Crowded heavy right mass with little breathing paper STRONGEST Narrow central gap splitting the two fans Material and surface · SOUND The ink is controlled and the edge grain is well used. Small drips sit in the paper at the bottom centre, and faint droplet spots appear in the right dark mass, mostly in the stretched view. WEAKEST Drip spatters at the bottom of the central gap STRONGEST Dry-brush grain at the fan edges near the gap FLAWS ## 3 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 3 distinct places, 14 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. 3 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 6.3. 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 2.12 (2.4 + 2.0 + 3.0 + 2.0 + 1.2) ÷ 5 → RAW 5.24 1 + 2 × 2.12 → RATING 6.3 5 + 2.086 × (5.24 − 4.60) ## Where next [Every record the full archive](https://peteryuill.art/archive)[2026.10.26 every painting from this date](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-10-26)