underdrawing
Painting's concealed blueprint
An underdrawing is a preliminary sketch made directly on a canvas or panel before painting begins.
Artists use underdrawings to establish composition, proportions, and details that will be covered by paint layers.
These sketches, often invisible to the naked eye, can be revealed through infrared reflectography and X-ray analysis, providing insight into an artist's working process and helping authenticate works.
Hasty informal drawing
- preliminaryBefore the main part
- outlineSummary of key elements
- tracingCopying by following lines
- charcoalBurned wood residue
pencil · graphite · transfer · cartoon · grid · scaling · blocking · mapping
Heavy woven cloth
- panelDistinct flat section
- gessoAbsorbent primer for canvases
- groundSolid surface underfoot
- pigmentColor-imparting material
oil · tempera · layers · glazing · overpainting · brushwork · opacity · transparency
Heat-bearing electromagnetic waves
- X-rayPenetrating diagnostic beam
- imagingProducing visual representations
- examinationMethodical assessment or review
- authenticationConfirming genuine identity
conservation · restoration · attribution · provenance · technical · scanning · radiography · spectroscopy
Made invisible deliberately
- buriedPlaced beneath earth
- revealedMade visible or known
- underlyingExisting beneath the surface
- beneathIn a lower position
invisible · obscured · covered · latent · alterations · changes · revisions · original
European cultural reawakening
- Old MastersPre-modern European artists
- FlemishBelgian Dutch variant
- Van EyckArnolfini portrait artist
- LeonardoItalian masculine name
Raphael · Rubens · Vermeer · Holbein · Bruegel · workshop · apprentice · attribution
sketch
Hasty informal drawing
- preliminaryBefore the main part
- outlineSummary of key elements
- tracingCopying by following lines
charcoal · pencil · graphite · transfer · cartoon · grid · scaling · blocking · mapping · composition
canvas
Heavy woven cloth
pigment · oil · tempera · layers · glazing · overpainting · brushwork · opacity · transparency · buildup
infrared
Heat-bearing electromagnetic waves
- X-rayPenetrating diagnostic beam
- imagingProducing visual representations
- examinationMethodical assessment or review
authentication · conservation · restoration · attribution · provenance · technical · scanning · radiography · spectroscopy · detection
concealed
Made invisible deliberately
- buriedPlaced beneath earth
- revealedMade visible or known
- underlyingExisting beneath the surface
beneath · invisible · obscured · covered · latent · alterations · changes · revisions · original · intentions
Renaissance
European cultural reawakening
- Old MastersPre-modern European artists
- FlemishBelgian Dutch variant
- Van EyckArnolfini portrait artist
Leonardo · Raphael · Rubens · Vermeer · Holbein · Bruegel · workshop · apprentice · attribution · period
- drawingsketch, sketches, pencil sketch, charcoal sketch, sketching
- fresco techniquesgiornata, arriccio, wet plaster, pouncing, lime wash
- illuminationillumination, illuminated manuscripts, illuminators, historiated initials, miniature
- conservationconservation, wildlife, endangered, habitat, sanctuary
- sketchessketch, pencil drawings, charcoal sketches, quick sketch, ink sketches
- art forgeryart forgery, art fraud, counterfeit art, fake paintings, master forger
underdrawingoverpainting
Applying pigment over existing layers
top layer · surface layer · varnish · glaze · impasto
draw, under, drawing, underneath, underside, redraw, redrawn, redrawing, underlie