underpainting

American  

[uhn-der-peyn-ting] / ˈʌn dərˌpeɪn tɪŋ /

noun

1. the first coat of paint, especially the initial painting on a canvas in which the major areas, tones, colors, and forms are indicated in mass.

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underpainting British  

/ ˈʌndəˌpeɪntɪŋ /

noun

1. the first layer in a painting, indicating the design and main areas of light and shade

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Etymology

Origin of underpainting

First recorded in 1865–70; under- + painting

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

underpainting

It’s as if the small images are underpainting that peeks through the cobalt surface.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2022

That’s a motif that runs through the book, the idea of the underpainting.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2022

On the white underpainting for a composition in progress, she pointed to the turbulent strokes and impasto — a contrast with the discipline of the finished works.

From New York Times ● Feb. 10, 2022

To make a 3-D re-creation of the Picasso underpainting, Oxia Palus used an X-ray available online and guided its algorithm with paintings from the artist’s broad “Blue Period.”

From Washington Post ● Dec. 28, 2021

It is in fact a landscape, done in oils, with the blue water, the purple underpainting, the craggy rocks and windswept raggedy trees and heavy impasto of the twenties and thirties.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood