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

Their research was initially hobbled by the pandemic, and other factors, but last spring MacDonald-Korth used high-tech equipment to study the underpainting and trace the elements of the paints used in the original in Philadelphia.

From New York Times ● Feb. 19, 2023

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

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 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

Years later… It was examined initially at the Atheneum, where a digital X-ray revealed an underpainting that looked like a self-portrait, which added to confidence about its authenticity.

From Fox News ● Apr. 1, 2019

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