maquette

plural maquettes

1. A preliminary model or sketch used in preparation for making a sculpture.

   “Never, ever call me a dummy. The word "dummy" is degrading. I am a manually-articulated performative kinesio-maquette... named Dudley Dingleberry.”

   2017 September 4, Jeff Kauffmann, “The Talented Mr. Dingleberry” (5:46 from the start), in American Dad!, season 14, episode 21, spoken by Roger (Seth MacFarlane)

   2 more examples

   His presence would be an affront to my body; so, for it, there would be the rare delight of extinguishing an imperfect and distressed version of itself, a prototype, a maquette.

   1993, Will Self, My Idea of Fun

   And I thought, if I can imagine this place in real life, I can build it in the studio and then paint from the maquette as if it were a real landscape. In terms of process this was a breakthrough for me[…]

   2009, Joe Fig, Inside the Painter's Studio, page 51

present singular third person maquettes · participle present maquetting · participle past maquetted · past maquetted

1. ambitransitiverareartTo prepare a maquette (of).