Crucible Year Peter Yuill
T_388, sumi ink on half-cooked red star mo she 6-foot bark xuan paper, self-sized T_388, tone-stretched: what the model was shownT_388: every pixel as the measuring code classes it
97 × 180 cm · the whole sheet, uncropped

T_388

Record
Date
2026.10.16
Dimensions
97 × 180 cm
Paper
Half-Cooked Red Star Mo She 6-Foot Bark Xuan Paper, self-sized from October 2026
Ink
Yi De Ge Yun Tou Yan, Boku-Undo Gentoku Super Concentrated, Yi De Ge Pine Soot Ink, Shisan Yue Calligraphy and Painting Ink
Enquire about T_388Availability, 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 2026.10.16: 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_388T_388, tone-stretchedT_388, classed by brightness
84%of the sheet carries ink
Black 75%Grey 20% SHARE OF THE INK, NOT OF THE SHEET
TONAL STEPS

1 family 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: 0.040 (under 0.045 reads as flat).

0.300.751 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, one answer.

Each quality placed on its ladder by each read, and the mean the engine keeps.

READ 1READ 2READ 3READ 4READ 5MEAN
Form2BUILT2BUILT2BUILT2BUILT2BUILT2.0
Tonal depth1THIN1THIN1THIN1THIN1THIN1.0
Layering2LEGIBLE2LEGIBLE2LEGIBLE2LEGIBLE2LEGIBLE2.0
Composition2WORKING2WORKING2WORKING2WORKING2WORKING2.0
Material and surface2SOUND2SOUND2SOUND2SOUND2SOUND2.0

READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS

“A stepped-arc spiral in the R3 manner, but a vast flat black core swallows the layering and tonal life. The arc edges and the spiral eye work; the overall sheet is ordinary to below average.”

Form · BUILT

Stepped arcs at the upper rim and left edge follow the brush's travel. The large central-right black mass is filled in and has lost its stroke shape.

WEAKEST Central dark mass reads as a bulky filled slab

STRONGEST Stepped arc strokes around the spiral's left rim

Tonal depth · THIN

Interior modulation is 0.040, which counts as flat, and there is one tonal step. Greys appear only at the outer edges of the arcs. The core mass is a uniform black.

WEAKEST Huge central-right black mass, flat inside

STRONGEST Translucent grey steps along the top-right rim

Layering · LEGIBLE

Several passes overlap legibly in the stepped rim at the top right and in the lower-left arcs. In the centre, the later black covers the earlier passes.

WEAKEST Central mass buries the earlier passes

STRONGEST Overlapping translucent bands at the top-right rim

Composition · WORKING

The spiral gives a clear rotational movement and the white lower left is shaped. At 84% ink coverage, the right half is jammed with dead black.

WEAKEST Dark mass crowds the right and bottom

STRONGEST Spiral eye leading into the white lower-left void

Material and surface · SOUND

There are small drips and spatters at the upper and lower left, away from the masses. Paper creasing shows in the tone-stretched view. No tide lines or rings inside the dark.

WEAKEST Dead, uniform black in the centre

STRONGEST Dry-brush edges on the stepped arcs

FLAWS

4 distinct places, 0 major.

Each read must name every flaw and where it is, in a ninth of the sheet. Here the reads named flaws in 4 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.

3 × OTHER“paper creasing visible through the dark mass …”5 × OTHER“small drips and spatters on the paper at the …”5 × DEAD INK, OTHER“flat uniform black core of the spiral mass”2 × DEAD INK“flat uniform black interior of the main mass”DEAD INKOTHER

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

2026.10.16, day 292 of the Crucible Year, one of 12 paintings from that date (9 shown). 0 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: P4 S14 (working title).

The first paintings registered in 21 days.
THE YEAR

T_388 among all 402

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

Every painting from 2026.10.16 · This date in the year

Materials

Paper
Half-Cooked Red Star Mo She 6-Foot Bark Xuan Paper, self-sized from October 2026, China Xuan Paper Co., Ltd., made 2026.04.08
Ink MB6
Yi De Ge Yun Tou Yan, Yi De Ge (Beijing)
Ink MB8
Boku-Undo Gentoku Super Concentrated, Boku-Undo
Ink MB9
Yi De Ge Pine Soot Ink, Yi De Ge (Beijing)
Ink MB10
Shisan Yue Calligraphy and Painting Ink, Shisan Yue (Thirteenth Month)
The sheet of paper was made 191 days before this painting.
When each paper was in use