A personal project in progress

 I've been a fan of The Shadow since I was a kid.  Over time I have done pieces here and there but this is the first time I've tried an "original" cover painting.  I'm sticking to the classic George Rozen version, lifting many of the tropes that he used over the many covers he did.  I'm using his "Creeping Death" and "The Book of Death" figure of Death and the dual lighting technique on The Shadow's face.  I deviated with some of the treatment The Shadow's cloak as I looked at how Leyendecker rendered folds in fabric.  I like how that turned out.  I still have modeling to do on the skull and skeletal fingers.  I'll be laying dark washes over the background and the desktop, leaving the blue light alone.  I'll be dropping some text on the paper in a classic code used in one of the original novels.  

This has been a lot of fun to do.  Since it's not a recreation where I know when I've reached the end I'll have to figure out when to stop on this and call it good.  Difficult with any piece of art.

Simple shapes

 Lots of good mass to work with.  Cody is a lot of fun to draw.

So close

 So many things I am really happy about in this drawing and yet it is marred by the things I couldn't get right.  I'm not going to point out the good or the bad, just know that I consider this a lost opportunity that I'm not sure I can save by going back in.  I may try, what have I got to lose?!

A painting

 (Apologies for the poor photography.  It's from my phone and the paint is still wet as I put down the last bit about 4 minutes before I took these shots.)

A fun exercise.  I've been doing what my wife calls "Ancestor" paintings.  Well, Lord Tennyson ain't an ancestor of mine but what a great face to work with.  I'll try and get a better shot later.  I still intend to drop a wash of raw sienna over this to kill some of the white in the hair and beard.

Torso

 Just a study.  Really only got a start on the rendering of Cody's left side.  More time!  My constant refrain.  More time!

Looks like a mess but...

 I had so much fun exploring this with large strokes and swathes of charcoal to indicated all the shadows.  Big masses deserve big lines and long strokes.  As I said, it looks a mess but it was fun to do.

A shoulder study that turned into an exercise in facial simplicity

 I like the loose treatment of her face in this.  The shoulder didn't work as her head kept moving to her left and it changed everything from her neck to the collarbone and even how the trapezius related to the deltoid and biscep.

The Sculptress' gestures

Cody is really knocking it out of the park with her poses.  These gestures are basically her stretching after a workout session.  She creates some great dynamic tension and, even if these sketches don't capture that, we benefit from her training to sculpt her physique.
 

Strong shadows

I could have spent the entire two hour session working on this one.  That strong shadow was just so mesmerizing.  I should have used better paper so that I could just pile on the charcoal and take in back out and blend and start all over again.  A blast to work on but not nearly enough time to really do it justice.

Undulating dunes

 I got lost in rendering those simple shapes created in the shoulders by Cody's great pose.  Lot's o' fun.

The long pose

 And I still didn't get to her face.  I realize that in many cases 45 minutes results in just a solid underpinning to a serious drawing but you'd think I could still knock in her facial features with that much time to work with.

Searching for form

Never enough time.  Quick pose.

Gestures of Cody

 Cody is back and these are the gestures.

Dismissive

 Sara casts her eyes askance.

Draped

 Sara shows her back.

Interlaced

 Kinda got hung up on the interlacing of the model's fingers.  Just a study.

A bit sketchy

 But what the hey (or is it hay?), it's a sketch.  Whatcha 'spect?

Gestures of Sara... again

 What is there to say, gesture drawings.

This was my favorite of the night

 I felt a bit of Nicolai Fechin influencing me here.  Another 5 - 10 minutes and I could have really screwed this up...

This one just kind of fell apart...

 The head kept sinking and I don't think I made the appropriate corrections.  I am happy with the actual figure drawing but just lost control with her noggin.  <sigh>

Sara in progress

 Probably my favorite sketch from the session.

Just a headshot

 A pretty basic portrait of Sara.