--- title: "T_396, sumi ink on paper | Crucible Year" url: https://peteryuill.art/works/T_396 description: "T_396 by Peter Yuill: A wheel of square-ended brush bands in black and grey turns around a small white eye, its pale spokes fanning off toward the top edge. Sumi ink on Huiyun Tianxuan Ge \"Dot Ink Becomes Gold\" Master Special, semi-cooked (self-sized, aged), 97 × 180 cm, 2026.10.16. Crucible Year." source: generated from the Crucible Year master database --- ![Black and grey brush bands spiral around a small white circle left of centre, with a dark rectangle at right and pale paper at the corners.] ![T_396, tone-stretched: what the model was shown] ![T_396: every pixel as the measuring code classes it] 97 × 180 cm · the whole sheet, uncropped # T_396 The engine's reading A wheel of square-ended brush bands in black and grey turns around a small white eye, its pale spokes fanning off toward the top edge. Record - **Date:** 2026.10.16 - **Dimensions:** 97 × 180 cm - **Paper:** [Huiyun Tianxuan Ge "Dot Ink Becomes Gold" Master Special, semi-cooked (self-sized, aged)](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S13) - **Ink:** [Yi De Ge Yun Tou Yan](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB6), [Boku-Undo Gentoku Super Concentrated](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB8), [Yi De Ge Pine Soot Ink](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB9), [Shisan Yue Calligraphy and Painting Ink](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB10) [Enquire about T_396](https://peteryuill.art/enquiries?work=T_396) Availability, price or a studio visit. Peter replies himself; asking commits you to nothing. The eye is the only calm place on the paper, so that is where I stand. In the eye of a real storm, birds get caught and ride the clear centre for days. They are too tired to cross the wall, so they circle with the hole the way gulls follow a ferry. Afterwards sailors find them on deck, sparrows far out at sea, wrong in every feather. I like the white wedge running out of this one. It looks like a way down to the shore. Off to the right the weather has gone solid, a front parked over the coast with nothing to do but be dark. Bring a coat. Out in the clear the small birds turn and turn, still deciding. 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_396#details)[The reading](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_396#reading)[How it was read](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_396#read)[Date](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_396#date)[Materials](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_396#materials)[Related](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_396#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:** radial arc bands around a small eye; diagonal bar and rectangular slab at right - **Movement:** rotation inward to the eye; diagonal bar runs against it toward upper right - **Coverage:** ink on about nine tenths of the paper - **Tone:** three tonal steps, weighted dark - **Layering:** translucent grey passes and dense black passes; readable on the upper and left rim - **Edges:** crisp band walls throughout; dry, streaked band ends at the rim - **Feibai:** none - **Open paper:** small round eye with a white wedge dropping to the lower left - **Chance marks:** small pale nick at foot of right slab; scuffs at bottom centre - **Frame:** ink runs off the bottom and top centre; left and right keep thin margins A wheel of square-ended bands turns around a small white eye set low and left of centre, and the whole paper is drawn toward that hole. A white wedge drops from the eye to the bottom edge, so the pull has an exit. Up and to the right, the bands loosen into pale spokes that fan off the top. The painting lives at its rim. On the upper left, translucent greys stack in steps, and each pass shows through the next because the alum-sized paper holds every wash on its surface. The arcs that hug the eye keep clean walls and follow the turn of the brush. Dry streaks at the band ends record the speed of the turn. The right side goes heavy. A broad black slab stands there, nearly flat inside, its surface dull where dense passes have filled the paper's grain and left no grey showing. The diagonal bar above it is just as stiff, and the dark field around the eye has fused the same way, burying the order of the passes. A pale nick at the slab's foot is trivial. The result is a real wheel with a real centre, built by a hand that knows how thin ink stacks. The slab weighs on it without breaking it. The sheet is solid and sure of its eye, and it stops a few hard decisions short of more. 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](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_396] ![T_396, tone-stretched] ![T_396, classed by brightness] 93% 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: 0.048 (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 1 THIN 1.8 Layering 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2 LEGIBLE 2.4 Composition 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2.0 Material and surface 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2.0 ### READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS “This radial layered sheet resembles R3's method. But heavy coverage, flat central and right darks, and a crowded right half keep it ordinary, apart from layering that reads clearly around the rim.” Form · BUILT Radial arc strokes hold their walls and follow brush travel; the right-hand rectangular dark slab and the fused central dark field read as bulky fills. WEAKEST bulky dark slab block at right STRONGEST arc bands ringing the small central eye Tonal depth · MODELLED Peripheral bands step through greys; the big central dark and right slab are near-uniform inside, with modulation barely above the flat threshold. WEAKEST flat black slab at right STRONGEST stepped grey bands at upper-left periphery Layering · ORDERED Many translucent radial passes overlap legibly around the rim and top right; toward the centre the darkest passes bury earlier ones. WEAKEST central dark field where passes merge STRONGEST translucent overlapping arcs at top and left edges Composition · WORKING Spiral pulls the eye to the white centre and the diagonal bar adds thrust, but ink covers 93% of the sheet; the right side feels jammed. WEAKEST crowded right half, little empty paper STRONGEST white eye and wedge drawing focus to centre Material and surface · SOUND Ink controlled with dry-brush edges at rim; no major stains seen; small pale nick at bottom right edge and minor scuffs at bottom centre. WEAKEST dense black right slab, dull surface STRONGEST dry-brush streaked edges of peripheral 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, 10 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. 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_396). ## 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](https://peteryuill.art/phases/P4) (working title). The first paintings registered in 21 days. THE YEAR ## T_396 among all 402 Every painting of the year by date; this one is outlined. [Every painting from 2026.10.16](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-10-16) · [This date in the year](https://peteryuill.art/year?follow=2026-10-16) ## Materials - **Paper:** [Huiyun Tianxuan Ge "Dot Ink Becomes Gold" Master Special, semi-cooked (self-sized, aged)](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S13), Anhui Jingxian Huiyun Tianxuan Ge Xuan Paper Art Products Co., Ltd. (安徽泾县徽韵天宣阁宣纸艺术品有限公司), made 2012.10 - **Ink MB6:** [Yi De Ge Yun Tou Yan](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB6), Yi De Ge (Beijing) - **Ink MB8:** [Boku-Undo Gentoku Super Concentrated](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB8), Boku-Undo - **Ink MB9:** [Yi De Ge Pine Soot Ink](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB9), Yi De Ge (Beijing) - **Ink MB10:** [Shisan Yue Calligraphy and Painting Ink](https://peteryuill.art/inks/MB10), Shisan Yue (Thirteenth Month) The sheet of paper was made 5128 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 · 8 Just before and after Same paper and inks, other dates · 4 [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_395](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_395) [Back to all works](https://peteryuill.art/works) [Next T_397](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_397) ## Where next [T_386 same date, with 7 others](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_386)[T_397 the next shown painting in the sequence](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_397)[T_398 same paper and inks, 2026.10.25](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_398)[2026.10.16 12 paintings on this date](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-10-16)[Paper S13 every work on it](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S13)