Term: Imprimatura

A thin stain of color that is applied over the priming or sizing. It is the first layer of color in oil painting. The term itself comes from Italian and literally means "first paint layer". It is applied to a ground to lessen its absorbency and to tone the ground to a middle value, as many painters dislike working directly on white.

The color used can be bright to dark, transparent or non-transparent. An extremely dark underpainting should be avoided as it can show through top layers as the work ages. The most common colors are raw sienna, red ochre, burnt umber, earth-red, grey, or grey blue.