"The Deadlift" (36x36 oil on panel) painting process

Greetings,
This large painting was a self portrait of sorts. I religiously balance my creative practice with my other favorite activity: lifting. When the balance is just right, both things see a substantial benefit.

detail

A big painting requires lots of paint. Lots of paint means a large palette. This is a repurposed upside-down 16x20 cradled gessobord (with an old botched painting face-down). Works great. Except all that dry surface soaked up the oil and made my paint dry at first. I've been wiping it down with extra linseed between sessions and now it is much better. Give it a year of use and it will be glossy and nice:

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At this point I posted it online, thinking it was done. Then one thing started to drive me crazy. I tried to ignore it, but it was too big of an issue. The barbell was severely misaligned with its sleeve. This is the downside of starting loose. Of course from a technical standpoint the misalignment was bad, but more importantly, a powerful aspect of the painting was missing: the feeling of weight and strain. The bar should be slightly bowed down, and if anything there was an illusion of the opposite happening. So I fixed it.

And the finished painting, "The Deadlift" (36x36 oil on panel, 2014):

Thanks for reading! -David

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