Crucible Year Peter Yuill
T_305, sumi ink on tanxi jing pi, raw T_305, tone-stretched: what the model was shownT_305: every pixel as the measuring code classes it
70 × 180 cm · the whole sheet, uncropped

T_305

Record
Date
2026.05.14
Dimensions
70 × 180 cm
Paper
Tanxi Thickened Grade A Special Jing Pi Small 6-Foot (raw)
Ink
Yi De Ge Refined Ink Juice, Boku-Undo Genso, Yi De Ge Yun Tou Yan
Enquire about T_305Availability, price or a studio visit. Peter replies himself; asking commits you to nothing.
Detail at full resolution, cut by code where the brushwork is finest · select to enlarge
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.

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_305T_305, tone-stretchedT_305, classed by brightness
79%of the sheet carries ink
Black 35%Grey 60% SHARE OF THE INK, NOT OF THE SHEET
TONAL STEPS

2 families of tone.

Every inked pixel's brightness in 64 bins, smoothed; each circled peak holds at least 4% of the ink. Two or fewer: Tonal depth is held at the bottom rung whatever the model reads. A dense sheet of many translucent passes can count low here, so Layering is left to the reads. Life inside the black: 0.050 (under 0.045 reads as flat).

0.300.7512 BLACK INK TRANSLUCENT GREYS PALEST INK, 0.88 LUMINANCE OF EVERY INKED PIXEL, 64 BINS. PAPER (ABOVE 0.88) IS LEFT OUT.
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 1READ 2READ 3READ 4READ 5MEAN
Form2BUILT2BUILT2BUILT2BUILT2BUILT2.0
Tonal depth2MODELLED2MODELLED2MODELLED2MODELLED2MODELLED2.0
Layering3ORDERED2LEGIBLE2LEGIBLE2LEGIBLE2LEGIBLE2.2
Composition2WORKING2WORKING2WORKING2WORKING2WORKING2.0
Material and surface1FLAWED2SOUND2SOUND2SOUND2SOUND1.8

READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS

“A quarter-arc study in the manner of R3: legible layered passes and banded arcs, but crowded, blocky in the centre-right, tonally narrow, and with milky patches inside the central grey mass.”

Form · BUILT

Left arcs bend fluently with the brush travel; centre-right passes end in squared, slab-like blocks with stiff, stacked terminations.

WEAKEST Stacked rectangular slab passes, centre-right, blunt and blocky

STRONGEST Large upper arc stroke following the brush's turn

Tonal depth · MODELLED

Arcs carry bristle banding and grain; tonal_steps 2 and modulation 0.0495, just above flat; the mid-grey rectangles read as one even tone.

WEAKEST Centre grey slabs, nearly uniform inside

STRONGEST Banded dry-brush striations through the upper arc

Layering · ORDERED

Several translucent passes: pale under-arc, darker arcs and stepped grey blocks overlapping to the right. The order reads clearly across most of the sheet.

WEAKEST Dense overlaps centre-right become hard to separate

STRONGEST Translucent stepped rectangles overlapping the arcs, centre

Composition · WORKING

The arc sweep gives direction from top-left to the right-hand ends, but ink covers 79% of the sheet; the mass is heavy and the right margin is only partly shaped.

WEAKEST Crowded centre mass; right paper strip leftover

STRONGEST Sweeping arc carrying eye from top to right

Material and surface · FLAWED

Dry-brush edges are well used, but pale milky patches and a curved scrape mark sit inside the central grey mass, visible in colour; crease lines cross the sheet.

WEAKEST Milky cloudy patches inside centre grey slabs

STRONGEST Dry-brush grain at stroke ends, right

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, 12 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.

6 × WATER STAIN, TIDE LINE · MAJOR“milky pale patches and curved mark inside cen…”1 × TIDE LINE“faint hard edge on pale wash, lower left”WHOLE SHEET · 5 × OTHERWATER STAINTIDE LINEOTHERMAJOR
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 17 edge segments, 59% crisp, 24% soft or bloomed, 18% broken.

A1B1C1D1E1F1A2B2C2D2E2F2A3B3C3D3E3F3H1H2H3H4

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.

Date

2026.05.14, day 137 of the Crucible Year, one of 9 paintings from that date (6 shown). 28 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 (working title).

Made after a calmer fortnight than 15 of the 18 dates before it.
THE YEAR

T_305 among all 402

Every painting of the year by date; this one is outlined.

Every painting from 2026.05.14 · This date in the year

Materials

Paper
Tanxi Thickened Grade A Special Jing Pi Small 6-Foot (raw), Anhui Jingxian Tanxi Xuan Paper Art Products Co., Ltd., made 2015.11.19
Ink MB4
Yi De Ge Refined Ink Juice, Yi De Ge (Beijing)
Ink MB5
Boku-Undo Genso, Boku-Undo
Ink MB6
Yi De Ge Yun Tou Yan, Yi De Ge (Beijing)
The sheet of paper was made 3829 days before this painting.
When each paper was in use