--- title: "T_223, sumi ink on paper | Crucible Year" url: https://peteryuill.art/works/T_223 description: "T_223 by Peter Yuill: Two black arcs in ink stand at either end of a long sheet and curve toward each other across a pale channel spotted with dried water drops. Sumi ink on Red Star Mo She Special Effect Xieyi Edition, raw, 97 × 180 cm, 2026.04.15. Crucible Year." source: generated from the Crucible Year master database --- ![Wide ink painting in black and greys: a dark arc at left and a dark arc at right face each other across a pale, drop-spotted centre.] ![T_223, tone-stretched: what the model was shown] ![T_223: every pixel as the measuring code classes it] 97 × 180 cm · the whole sheet, uncropped # T_223 The engine's reading Two black arcs in ink stand at either end of a long sheet and curve toward each other across a pale channel spotted with dried water drops. Record - **Date:** 2026.04.15 - **Dimensions:** 97 × 180 cm - **Paper:** [Red Star Mo She Special Effect Xieyi Edition, raw](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S11) - **Ink:** [Yi De Ge Refined Ink Juice](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB4), [Boku-Undo Genso](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB5), [Yi De Ge Yun Tou Yan](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB6) [Enquire about T_223](https://peteryuill.art/enquiries?work=T_223) Availability, price or a studio visit. Peter replies himself; asking commits you to nothing. Two halves of a bridge, and the city ran out of money in the middle. I know that river. At night the cab drivers park at the end of the left span, kill the engine and look across at the right span, where somebody left the floodlights on. Rain on the windshield, round drops, each one holding a streetlamp. The last bit never gets built either. On Fridays the kids drop pennies off both ends to see whose lands first, and the river keeps score and keeps the result to itself. I like that bridge. It is very sure of itself for something that goes nowhere. When the late trains pass underneath, the right span hums, and the left span holds still and listens. Neon [Who Neon is](https://peteryuill.art/neon) Detail at full resolution, cut by code where the brushwork is finest · select to enlarge [Details](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_223#details)[The reading](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_223#reading)[How it was read](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_223#read)[Date](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_223#date)[Materials](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_223#materials)[Related](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_223#related) The engine's reading ## The reading Written by the engine after the painting was rated, from the settled findings, and checked by hand before approval. It explains the numbers; it may not change them. - **Structure:** two arcing masses facing each other, joined by overlapping grey washes - **Movement:** both arcs rise and turn inward; the central grey slab pushes sideways against them - **Coverage:** ink on about four fifths of the paper - **Tone:** three tonal steps, weighted to the middle greys - **Layering:** pale wash, mid grey, black arc; readable on the left, blurred in the centre - **Edges:** crisp on the black wedge, broken on the arcs' outer curves, soft in washes - **Feibai:** present, round the outer curve of the right arc - **Open paper:** narrow pale channel from top centre down between the arcs - **Chance marks:** drop rings top centre and right, tide rings lower left, milky blooms centrally - **Frame:** runs off left, right and bottom edges; top edge stays mostly open Two dark arcs hold the ends of the sheet and turn toward each other. The left one sweeps up from the bottom edge and ends in a black wedge near the top. The right one rises as a broad black band and bends away to the right edge. Between them, grey washes spread and the paper shows through in a narrow pale channel. The right arc carries the sheet. The brush took the whole curve in one pass, and the raw bark paper grips a drying brush hard, so every hair is on record: pale streaks run parallel round the outer bend, near black and mid grey step in bands inside it. You can read the speed and the turn. The left arc does the other good thing: where it crosses the pale wash, both layers stay distinct. The black wedge at the top of the left arc is filled flat, one dark with nothing moving inside. Below centre a pale grey slab ends in a blunt comb. The middle fills with overlapping greys, so the gap between the arcs blurs where it should open. The water rings across the top sit on the paper without harm. The pairing works, and one arc is worth standing close to. Around it, fills stand in for strokes and greys cover the paper instead of shaping it. An everyday sheet, lifted by a single good curve. Measured ## How it was read Read by the Visual Analysis Engine, version 23.8, on 2026.10.06: 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_223] ![T_223, tone-stretched] ![T_223, classed by brightness] 84% 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: 0.053 (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 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2 BUILT 2.0 Tonal depth 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2.0 Layering 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2.0 Composition 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2.0 Material and surface 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1.0 ### READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS “Two opposed arcs over layered grey washes. The right arc has good dry-brush banding, but the centre is crowded and the left wedge is flat. Scattered water-drop rings and cloudy wash patches damage the surface. Ordinary overall.” Form · BUILT Both arcs read as made, curving strokes; the left upper dark wedge and the central grey slab are bulky fills that do not follow the brush. WEAKEST Left dark wedge top centre, blunt filled triangle STRONGEST Right arcing mass with brush-travel striations Tonal depth · MODELLED The right arc shows arcs and grain inside. The left arc has some streaking, but the dark wedge at top centre is uniform. Modulation of 0.053 is only just above flat. WEAKEST Left dark wedge interior is flat STRONGEST Right arc's banded dry-brush striations Layering · LEGIBLE Pale grey washes, mid greys and black arcs overlap and stay readable on the left. The sequence is less clear across the centre and the right. WEAKEST Centre grey slab sits flat over earlier washes STRONGEST Left arc crossing the translucent grey wash Composition · WORKING Two arcing masses face each other with a central opening and give some movement. Ink covers 84% of the sheet, so the paper is barely shaped and the centre is crowded. WEAKEST Busy grey centre wedge between the two arcs STRONGEST Opposed arcs framing the central gap Material and surface · FLAWED Pale tide-ringed droplets in the top centre and top right are visible in the colour view. There are also cloudy rings in the lower-left grey wash beside the left arc. WEAKEST Pale drop rings scattered across the top centre STRONGEST Dry-brush grain in the right arc FLAWS ## 5 distinct places, 2 major. Each read must name every flaw and where it is, in a ninth of the sheet. Here the reads named flaws in 5 distinct places, 19 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. GEOMETRY ## Measured from the 16-bit master. The previous engine (V22) measured this sheet's master file: 2 principal ink masses traced (cyan), 4 enclosed voids at true size in their grid cells (amber), the main gesture from start to end (red). Of 15 edge segments, 20% crisp, 73% soft or bloomed, 7% broken. The rating these readings produce, the rules applied and the arithmetic, with Peter's own rating where he gave one, are in [the Archive record](https://peteryuill.art/archive/works/T_223). ## Date 2026.04.15, day 108 of the Crucible Year, one of 11 paintings from that date (8 shown). 58 works were registered in the fourteen days before. Paintings are dated by the day their batch was registered and photographed; each was finished that day or within the few days before. Phase: [P2 The Switch](https://peteryuill.art/phases/P2) (working title). Made after one of the busiest fortnights of the previous two months: 58 works in the fourteen days before. THE YEAR ## T_223 among all 402 Every painting of the year by date; this one is outlined. [Every painting from 2026.04.15](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-04-15) · [This date in the year](https://peteryuill.art/year?follow=2026-04-15) ## Materials - **Paper:** [Red Star Mo She Special Effect Xieyi Edition, raw](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S11), China Xuan Paper Co., Ltd., made 2025.12.08 - **Ink MB4:** [Yi De Ge Refined Ink Juice](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB4), Yi De Ge (Beijing) - **Ink MB5:** [Boku-Undo Genso](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB5), Boku-Undo - **Ink MB6:** [Yi De Ge Yun Tou Yan](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB6), Yi De Ge (Beijing) The sheet of paper was made 128 days before this painting. When each paper was in use [S1](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S1)[S2](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S2)[S3](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S3)[S4](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S4)[S5](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S5)[S6](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S6)[S7](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S7)[S8](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S8)[S9](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S9)[S10](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S10)[S11](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S11)[S12](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S12)[S13](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S13)[S14](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S14) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct ## Related From the same date · 7 Same paper and inks, other dates · 6 [Pattern V23 material and surface rung rose from 2026-05-24 on (rank-biserial +0.78, n 259)](https://peteryuill.art/oracle)[Pattern The floor of V23 Form rung raised in the later half of the practice (+2.30 SD, n 259)](https://peteryuill.art/oracle)[Pattern 45% of the variation in V23 Composition rung lies between batches (29 batches, n 259); with the month held constant 26%](https://peteryuill.art/oracle) [Previous T_222](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_222) [Back to all works](https://peteryuill.art/works) [Next T_224](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_224) ## Where next [T_219 same date, with 6 others](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_219)[T_320 same paper and inks, 2026.05.31](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_320)[2026.04.15 11 paintings on this date](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-04-15)[Paper S11 every work on it](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S11)