Of men and moons ☾

Artist and Illustrator. Website, Prints, Minis and social media PINTEREST THE OTHER WOMAN No requests/trades Private commissions are : CLOSED

[jodeeeart]

In-between feedback and client work, I'm picking away at my WIP pile just to try and get some personal work over the line and out of limbo. This beast has had many forms but I think it's time to open the gates and release it.

[jodeeeart]

Monochrome sketch that I don't think I ever shared on here.

[jodeeeart]

I deal with art burn out. How do you handle projects you know will take you multiple days of commitment?

Hello! Thanks for the ask! Are you saying that you’re struggling to concentrate, focus or sustain enthusiasm on something over a few days? Or are you overloaded with longer term projects and commitments and, and such, are burning out? Honestly, I think i would need a little more detail to fully understand what your experience of burnout is to answer this question properly but I don’t want to leave you hanging, so I’ll try my best to answer for you. Every personal painting or piece of client work I’ve ever undertaken has taken me multiple days, weeks or in the case of larger projects months or years. Unless you’re some kind of machine, that’s kind of how anything gets done. Full disclosure, I am very much into repetition and ritual meaning i can do something again and again without too much of an issue. I trend closer to obsessive and compulsive behaviour in that way and painting kind of channels that for me. Assuming this is not about work pressure but more about attention span and focus, as counter intuitive as it might sound, what about juggling a couple of different pieces in a day? Would working in shorter bursts on different tasks help to keep your brain interested and focused? It’s absolutely fine to work to your own rhythm. Just because another person can sit for x hours in a painting sesh doesn’t mean that will work for you. Especially if you’re finding it’s leaving you feeling demotivated and exhausted, have a go at mixing up your approach and find what method suits you best. The other more general note I would always say to anyone struggling with focus is to leave your phone in another space. Those wretched black holes are looking to eat and commodify as much of your time as is physically possible. Turn off pop up notifications and all beeps and boops if they’re on your computer or tablet too. However, if this is workload related, that’s where I have experienced something closer to a burnout. It was on a longer project and the workload expectations were extremely high. I was completely and utterly exhausted from working all the time on a project that my heart was not in. That’s one of the biggest lessons I have learnt in my time as a professional - do not commit a large amount of time and energy to something you don’t really want to do. It’s soul crushing. I’ve also felt extremely demotivated when a project has felt a bit headless, without any real goal posts or target to hit. I find it makes the work feel meaningless which is devastating for morale. I just sort of fall into a mercenary role to get through. I am not perfect but I make a concerted effort these days to give myself periods of rest to recover after intense periods like that, it goes a long way to stave off burnout. If you have the energy for it, making things only for yourself can really help too. Sometimes the endless feedback can bog you down, it’s nice to act as judge, jury and executioner on a piece from beginning to end. Realising your own visions in this way is essential i think. I am rambling now. All this to say - identifying the source of your frustration, exhaustion or lack of motivation to continue is where you’ll find answers. Find out what methods and projects are the best fit for you and get yourself a schedule together that accommodates that. Rest is just as important as the work and don’t take my words as gospel haha.

[jodeeeart]

Hi Jodie, i was wondering if you use photos for the poses of some of your work or do you pay for models to draw from, or you just draw the poses from your imagination, i personally i dont know what to do do you think its okay to work only from photos for you art

Hello there!

In short - Yes, I do use loads of reference from photos. In an ideal world, i would book models and shoot my own references but a lot of client work demands things move pretty quickly. I usually pay for a commercial licence on Artists reference packs. I was using the flipped normals market place until it closed recently as they had a decent policy against uploading AI reference materials. I also take my own photos on my phone to get the exact pose / lighting situation all the time. I think it’s about balance when it comes to reference and imagination. I will use reference when it comes to a getting a hand right, getting the pose or the face spot on but for the overall idea, I will usually have a concept in mind that i support with some references at hand. I won’t work from them anywhere near as directly. I save ideas and visuals i like all the time so i have a bank of imagery at hand whenever I need it. It’s what i loved about Pinterest. It’s a good way to kickstart your imagination, trawling through things that have previously inspired you that you may have forgotten about. I think sketching and ideating without reference is important too, especially for idea generation/concepting. As you get more experience working from life or photography, your visual vocabulary will build and sketching without the reference won’t feel as daunting. It all sort of works in tandem.

There is nothing wrong with using photography for reference, Artists have been using reference for a long, long time. As you improve, your interpretation of that photography will get more sophisticated and less literal, it just takes time. I think the idea that artists, especially those dealing in realism, shouldn’t use any reference is mostly held by people who don’t have that much experience in the field honestly. It’s some sort of romantic naivety. Of course, there is definitely a difference between ‘good’ reference and ‘bad’ reference when it comes to quality. Be discerning and know what you’re taking from it. Not all photographers are created equal. Heavily edited, fashion photography, editorial stuff or someone’s filtered IG grid probably isn’t the best source for a real or natural feel but, in the same breath, those same things might light up your imagination and inspire awesome ideas.

And it should go without saying - avoid AI references all together. Garbage. Trash. Shite.

Hope this helps!

[jodeeeart]

Earlier this year I was invited by @3dtotal to contribute 10 sketches for their Dreams and Nightmares compendium. There was a lot of creative freedom on this commission so it was really fun to work on. the collection features artwork from 50 flesh and bones artists and it's available for preorder now! Link HERE

[jodeeeart]

Love love love your art. Your colors and the way you blend them is so seamless in a very organic way if that makes sense lol. So much skill in those paintings and they always make me feel inspired to paint myself 🖤🖤🖤

Hey!

Thank you very much! Glad to hear you're feeling inspired and I hope you do pick up a brush!

[jodeeeart]

Thank you for the wips! Its always a joy to see them, thank you for keeping us in touch <3.

Hey Nonny! Thank you for the kind words! It's nice to be posting something again -even if it's just WIPS! <3

[jodeeeart]

Can I just say what a fucking pleasure, what a fucking treat it is to just post art freely like that. Compared to the bizarre tension of posting on Instagram, it's refreshing to just blap 'em out here and not feel any kind of awkward about it at all. Works can be unrelated, different mediums and shared without the weird, unnecessary production bloat of social media.

[jodeeeart]

WIPurgatory 2025

[jodeeeart]

More 2025 WIPurgatory

[jodeeeart]

From the 2025 WIPurgatory

[jodeeeart]

Oil study to kick off 2026!

Aragorn's Hands.

[jodeeeart]

of course.

[jodeeeart]

Hello! I'm obsessed with the Aragorn paintings you posted recently! Is it okay to use the back and white one as a banner picture on Tumblr, or would you rather not? 🤞🏻

Hey Non!

Thank you for the ask, by all means, go forth and Aragorn!

[jodeeeart]

Have you had a play with Leonardo? I watched Steven Zapata's video on it and it looked really interesting! The infinite canvas + apparent Photoshop-like round brush sounded so exciting - I simply haven't had time to fiddle with the free trial. I wanted to know another artist's opinion.

Hey there Non! No, I haven’t tried Leonardo! I’ve not really had much time to play around with other programmes of late. I’ll definitely put it on my to-do list though! The Photoshop-like round brush does sounds pretty appealing! Let me know if you do try it out and have some success with it!

[jodeeeart]

Some more cover work for Black Library.

These Icons are for the Carcharodon Special Editions:

// Red Tithe // Outer Dark // Void Exile

by Robbie Macnivern AD: Joe Higgins

[jodeeeart]

Jodeeeee! Can you share your process with pencils, and/or what grades you use? 🥺 I wanna get back into my sketch studies but they’re so ass right now!

Hey!

Thank you for the ask! Honestly - let them be ass for a little while! I have only just picked pencils back up after not having done anything with them for ages and I felt extremely rusty.

I took my time with that recent Gob drawing, I put in maybe 6 or so hours spread out over a few days. By the end of it, I felt a little more at ease. Having said that, it was a sporadic start. I just felt an impatient URGE to draw something so he wasn't heavily laboured in the mapping stage. I used reference from an existing piece of my own work for the character costuming and some pose ref. Pencil was a 2B Caran D'ache Techograph (sharpen that thing regularly!) and the paper is one of those delightful soft cover moleskins.

Here he is in WIP -

It wasn't taken for instructional purposes but I think it sort of illustrates how I went through the piece. Unlike a painting, where everything gets worked over at the same kind of rate, I try and start at the top and work down as softer pencils can get a bit smudgey if my hand passes over the piece too much. As I mentioned, the line scaffolding is pretty minimal here, it is probably not the BEST way to go about things but I had a pretty solid idea of what I was going for.

This was a slightly more involved effort time wise, but they really don't have to be like that if you want to get those muscles going again. Some regular, gestural quick studies will really help you find your flow again. Try starting with really low time limits, like 2 minutes and work your way up! You'll be amazed how much looser and confident you feel.

Anyway, I hope that answered your question a little bit!