--- title: "T_398, sumi ink on paper | Crucible Year" url: https://peteryuill.art/works/T_398 description: "T_398 by Peter Yuill: A black fan and its grey arcs turn on a small ring, while tilted grey rectangles pile into a dark block at the bottom right corner. Sumi ink on Huiyun Tianxuan Ge \"Dot Ink Becomes Gold\" Master Special, semi-cooked (self-sized, aged), 97 × 180 cm, 2026.10.25. Crucible Year." source: generated from the Crucible Year master database --- ![A black fan and grey arcs turn around a small ring at left; tilted grey rectangles and a black block fill the right.] ![T_398, tone-stretched: what the model was shown] ![T_398: every pixel as the measuring code classes it] 97 × 180 cm · the whole sheet, uncropped # T_398 The engine's reading A black fan and its grey arcs turn on a small ring, while tilted grey rectangles pile into a dark block at the bottom right corner. Record - **Date:** 2026.10.25 - **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_398](https://peteryuill.art/enquiries?work=T_398) Availability, price or a studio visit. Peter replies himself; asking commits you to nothing. The line at the top right is a hair. I have decided this. A long one, too long to be mine, lying across the white of the sink the way they always do the morning after someone stays. You do not pick it up straight away. You brush your teeth around it. You let it be proof that the flat was briefly for two, that a second toothbrush leaned in the glass and a heavier body pressed the mattress down on the right until the whole bed sloped toward it. By Thursday it is still there. I run the tap and it does not move. I switch off the light and leave it, one dark thread on porcelain, catching the 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_398#details)[The reading](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_398#reading)[How it was read](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_398#read)[Date](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_398#date)[Materials](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_398#materials)[Related](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_398#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:** dark fan sector on a small hub, radiating arcs, stacked tilted rectangles at right - **Movement:** rotation around the hub; the right-hand stack leans against it - **Coverage:** ink on about four fifths of the paper - **Tone:** six tonal steps, weighted dark - **Layering:** many translucent passes, readable in the left arcs and upper right bands - **Edges:** crisp on arcs and band walls; ragged dry tops on some upright rectangles - **Feibai:** none - **Open paper:** broad wedge at lower left, smaller pale field at upper right - **Chance marks:** thin stray line at top right; cloudy pale wash below the hub - **Frame:** ink runs off top and bottom right; lower left and upper right corners stay open A wheel turns on a small ring just left of centre. A dark fan swings up from it, grey arcs spill round its rim toward the left edge, and broken bands curl beneath, so the eye runs the circuit before it rests anywhere. On the right, tilted rectangles crowd toward a black block that sits hard on the bottom corner. The arcs at upper left are where the sheet lives. Pass lies over pass, each grey keeps its own clean edge, and the order they went down can be read like a stack of glass. The paper, sized by hand to sit between raw and sealed, lets each wash dry on top of the last instead of sinking into it. The bare paper at lower left takes its shape from that swing and gives it room. The cost is the bottom right. The rectangles darken there into one heavy slab that jams the corner and outweighs the wheel. Its black, like the fan's interior, is nearly uniform, and the faint creases across it are the only event inside. Where that leaves it is solid ground. The wheel turns, the greys stay clear, and the sheet stands well, held back from more by the weight it piles in one corner. Measured ## How it was read Read by the Visual Analysis Engine, version 23.11, on 2026.10.26: 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_398] ![T_398, tone-stretched] ![T_398, classed by brightness] 83% 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: 0.038 (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 1 THIN 1 THIN 2 MODELLED 1 THIN 1 THIN 1.2 Layering 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3 ORDERED 3.0 Composition 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2 WORKING 2.0 Material and surface 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 2 SOUND 1 FLAWED 2 SOUND 1.8 ### READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS “This sheet works in the same radial, layered arc style as R3. The passes are well ordered and legible, but the dark masses are flat inside and the heavy lower-right slab crowds the composition. The material is sound apart from minor marks.” Form · BUILT Fan and arc segments hold clean walls following a radial swing; the large lower-right block is a heavy filled slab with stiff, stacked rectangular edges. WEAKEST Bulky dark rectangular slab filling bottom right STRONGEST Curved arc bands around the fan's hub Tonal depth · THIN Dark interior modulation 0.038 measures flat; fan and right block are uniform inside, with tone changing mainly at overlapping pass edges. Grey arcs give some range. WEAKEST Flat black interior of the large upper fan STRONGEST Translucent grey arc bands at left Layering · ORDERED Many translucent passes overlap in a readable order across arcs and right-hand rectangles; overlaps stay legible and build depth, though the darkest areas close up. WEAKEST Right block passes merge toward dark uniformity STRONGEST Stacked translucent arcs fanning at upper left Composition · WORKING Strong radial rotation around the central hub, with shaped empty paper lower left; the right half is weighted and crowded, so the balance tips heavily. WEAKEST Crowded heavy mass in bottom right STRONGEST Radial swing around the hub at centre Material and surface · SOUND The ink is controlled with crisp pass edges. There is a stray thin line in the top-right paper, faint crease marks in the right block and a cloudy pale wash below the hub. WEAKEST Crease-like marks across the right dark block STRONGEST Clean translucent edges of grey arc passes 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. 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_398). ## Date 2026.10.25, day 301 of the Crucible Year, one of 2 paintings from that date. 12 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 YEAR ## T_398 among all 402 Every painting of the year by date; this one is outlined. [Every painting from 2026.10.25](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-10-25) · [This date in the year](https://peteryuill.art/year?follow=2026-10-25) ## 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 5137 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 · 1 Just before and after 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_397](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_397) [Back to all works](https://peteryuill.art/works) [Next T_399](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_399) ## Where next [T_397 same date, with 0 others](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_397)[T_399 the next shown painting in the sequence](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_399)[T_400 same paper and inks, 2026.10.26](https://peteryuill.art/works/T_400)[2026.10.25 2 paintings on this date](https://peteryuill.art/days/2026-10-25)[Paper S13 every work on it](https://peteryuill.art/papers/S13)