--- title: "T_272, sumi ink on paper | Crucible Year" url: https://peteryuill.art/works/T_272 description: "T_272 by Peter Yuill: Two crescents of ink turn against each other across a long sheet, a stacked grey arc on the left, a black one on the right, holding a cup of white paper. Sumi ink on Tanxi Thickened Grade A Half-Raw 6-Foot, 97 × 180 cm, 2026.04.26. Crucible Year." source: generated from the Crucible Year master database --- ![Wide ink painting: a large grey and black arc on the left and a dense black crescent on the right curve around a white centre.] ![T_272, tone-stretched: what the model was shown] ![T_272: every pixel as the measuring code classes it] 97 × 180 cm · the whole sheet, uncropped # T_272 The engine's reading Two crescents of ink turn against each other across a long sheet, a stacked grey arc on the left, a black one on the right, holding a cup of white paper. Record - **Date:** 2026.04.26 - **Dimensions:** 97 × 180 cm - **Paper:** [Tanxi Thickened Grade A Half-Raw 6-Foot](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S4) - **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_272](https://peteryuill.art/enquiries?work=T_272) Availability, price or a studio visit. Peter replies himself; asking commits you to nothing. The black crescent on the right is the night side of somewhere. I was on the ship when we first came round it, and the bridge went quiet, because a world that dark is either empty or asleep. Along its lower curve the light got in through scratches, the way it does after something has burned down through air and left its trail combed thin. We sent a greeting. We sent it again. Off to the left a grey moon was coming apart into weather, shedding small dark seeds into the void. The reply came much later. It was a single white shape, a cup, held up to our window. 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_272#details)[The reading](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_272#reading)[How it was read](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_272#read)[Date](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_272#date)[Materials](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_272#materials)[Related](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_272#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 opposed crescents, the left stacked with grey slabs, meeting low beneath a white centre - **Movement:** counter-turning circular sweep; grey shards at top centre push across it - **Coverage:** ink on about three quarters of the paper - **Tone:** six tonal steps, weighted dark - **Layering:** grey washes under black; passes readable on the left, mostly covered on the right - **Edges:** crisp stepped edges on left greys; bristle-broken outer curves; spattered tips at top - **Feibai:** present, along the lower tail of the right crescent as it sweeps toward centre - **Open paper:** white cup shape in the centre, opening toward the top right - **Chance marks:** spatter upper left and top right; pitted specks and tide-edged patch centre-left; water stains top centre - **Frame:** ink runs off left, bottom and upper-left top edges; top right and right edge stay open Two crescents turn against each other across the long sheet, and the first thing the eye takes is the white they hold: a cup of paper opening to the top right. The left arc swings down off the bottom edge. The right one, black and heavy, comes round from the top and runs back toward the centre. The left arc is where the sheet is strongest. Its greys go down in separate passes, pale under mid under dark, and the half-sized paper keeps each edge crisp, so the order still reads. Bristle tracks run through its darkest band like grain in timber. Along the bottom of the right crescent the stroke thins into flying white, bare paper streaking in the direction of travel. The costs sit close together. Grey shards and spatter crowd the top centre and the upper left, and the turn loses its pull there. Inside the centre-left grey, a pale patch has dried to a hard tide line among pitted specks. The right crescent's core is one sealed black, heavy with little inside it. A good, working sheet: the arcs and the white earn their room, and the clutter and the flat black take some of it back. It moves more than it deepens. 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_272] ![T_272, tone-stretched] ![T_272, classed by brightness] 77% 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: 0.060 (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 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 2 MODELLED 3 DEEP 2.2 Layering 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2.0 Composition 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 3 COMMANDING 2 WORKING 3 COMMANDING 2.4 Material and surface 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1 FLAWED 1.0 ### READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS “The opposing arcs make an engaging circular structure, and the left arc has layered, modulated greys. The heavy right black mass, cluttered top centre and pitted, tide-marked inner grey arc hold the sheet to an ordinary level.” Form · BUILT The two big arcs read as circular brush travel with holding walls. The right black mass is heavy and slab-like inside, and the top-centre grey shapes are ragged. WEAKEST Bulky, blunt right-hand dark mass interior STRONGEST Left arc with dry-brush striations following the sweep Tonal depth · MODELLED Six tonal steps and modulation of 0.060. The left arc shows bands and graded greys. The core of the right dark mass reads mostly as one dense black. WEAKEST Lower interior of the right black mass STRONGEST Left arc's stepped greys and striations Layering · LEGIBLE Two or three grey passes on the left overlap legibly. On the right, the later black largely covers the earlier grey arc. WEAKEST Right mass, where passes merge into black STRONGEST Overlapping translucent grey passes in the left arc Composition · WORKING The arcs on left and right set up a circular movement around shaped white paper. The top-centre grey shards and spatter clutter the junction and weaken the flow. WEAKEST Cluttered top-centre grey fragments STRONGEST Two opposing arcs enclosing a shaped white centre Material and surface · FLAWED The inner grey arc at centre-left carries scattered pitted specks and a pale tide-edged patch, visible in the colour view. Further tide edges sit in the top-centre greys. WEAKEST Pitted, speckled patch in the centre-left grey arc STRONGEST Dry-brush striations at the left arc's edge 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. GEOMETRY ## Measured from the 16-bit master. The previous engine (V22) measured this sheet's master file: 3 principal ink masses traced (cyan), 6 enclosed voids at true size in their grid cells (amber), the main gesture from start to end (red). Of 21 edge segments, 57% crisp, 14% soft or bloomed, 29% 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_272). ## Date 2026.04.26, day 119 of the Crucible Year, one of 13 paintings from that date (10 shown). 55 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). THE YEAR ## T_272 among all 402 Every painting of the year by date; this one is outlined. [Every painting from 2026.04.26](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-04-26) · [This date in the year](https://peteryuill.art/year?follow=2026-04-26) ## Materials - **Paper:** [Tanxi Thickened Grade A Half-Raw 6-Foot](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S4), Anhui Jingxian Tanxi Xuan Paper Art Products Co., Ltd., made 2024 - **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 last painting on S4 so far, after 52 others. 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 · 9 [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_271](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_271) [Back to all works](https://peteryuill.art/works) [Next T_276](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_276) ## Where next [T_260 same date, with 8 others](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_260)[T_276 the next shown painting in the sequence](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_276)[2026.04.26 13 paintings on this date](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-04-26)[Paper S4 every work on it](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S4)