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Monday, December 31, 2012

New Beginnings - New Years Advice

With the new year coming up, it's a great time for goal setting. The reason is that the calendar resets and provides us with a mental "refresh" period. Honestly, you can change your life any time, any day. But the new year allows our brain to cooperate with our mental need to change. Which is why it's the perfect time to set goals.

Here's the problem. 98% of people give up or back out on their goals by the end of February. That's a fact. So when the new year comes up again they say "Ok, NOW I'm serious.". But statistics say the same thing will happen again. Why?

Here's why. Setting goals is not enough. You need to take it a step further. Goals are the fun and easy part to set. From there you need to really analyze it and figure out an action plan. What exactly you need to do to achieve those goals. You need to be really honest with yourself and don't fluff it up because that's just self-sabotage. If you want to hit a certain goal in 2013, YOU CAN. No matter how big. But the bigger the goal, the harder the action plan. So just be honest with yourself.

Action plans are still not enough though. I could set hardcore action plans all day. Will I do them? Who knows. It comes down to this one word; BEHAVIORS.

"For things to change, you have to change." -Jim Rohn

There's no way around this. At all. If you don't change, your 2012 will be exactly the same as your 2013. Don't believe me? Look at anyone who's ever won the lottery. Obviously they're still the same person. They just have more money now. In about a year, that money is usually gone. Look at millionaires though. You take their money away, and they'll get it back in a month. Most of them. Why? They're millionaires in their mind. They have the habits of millionaires. Behaviors are important.

This is hard to swallow for some people to swallow. They don't think they need to change. Yet I can show you how their 2013 will be exactly like their 2012. Which they might be content with. I believe in always moving forward. Always taking it up to another level. I don't care what level you're at, once you stop growing, you start dying.

If your goal is to be a better artist, but you put the exact same amount of time and effort into your art as you did last year, you might improve a little. But most likely not. Behaviors need to change. Habits. If you wanna be a better artist in 2013 you need to draw MORE than you did last year. But that's not enough. You need to think different. Act different. Step out of your comfort zone more. You need to change. If you're inspired by Jim Lee and wanna draw like Jim Lee, but aren't drawing nearly as much as he does, you're going to have a bad time.

You may not know the kind of behaviors and habits you need to have to do the actions you need to hit the goals that you want. Here's a tip. Find someone who has what you want. And do what they do. Simple? Maybe. Depends on what they're doing. Someone who is having success that you want, was not born that way. I guarantee it. They were once worse than you, hard to believe sometimes right? So if you do what they do, you will get what they have. It's simple. If your favorite artist is studying 20 hours a week on top of work on top of family time, etc. then do that.

Stop searching for instant gratification! It doesn't exist. I was guilty of it and most newbies are. "Well maybe if I get that pencil I can draw like them" "Maybe if I get that DVD I'll be instantly better". No. Now, I won't say don't do those things. Because you don't know what you don't know. You might try a new pencil and it might work better for you than the one you used to use. Who knows. But don't expect improvement without insane, ridiculous, hard work. If you're not doing so, follow *Ricky-Martinez. He embodies this concept. He's at the grind every day. He doesn't make excuses. He finds a way. No matter what, he finds a way. And he pulls himself out of his comfort zone CONSTANTLY. And boom, out of nowhere he's improving. It's not magic, nor is it rocket science. His behaviors and habits changed, and therefore he improved.

1. Set your goals
2. Create an honest action plan
3. Set a list of behaviors and habits you'll need to embody to perform those actions NO MATTER WHAT
4. Start forcing yourself to change habits (bad habits die hard).
5. Perform the actions you need to hit your goals.
6. Hit your goals.

"A goal is a dream with a deadline." -Napoleon Hill

You can make 2013 different. You can make it better. You can literally change your life in 2013. The ONLY thing stopping you from doing that is you. No one else. Nothing else. Just you. So if you don't hit your goals and if you didn't last year, it's because of you. Plain and simple. Hard to swallow? I'd rather give real advice than sugar-coat it. You can blame people, your job, make excuses, whatever. But it was none of that and will be none of that. It's you. So decide to make change. Commit. Do whatever it takes. I believe in you. Feel free to ask me for anything. And have a wonderful New Year everyone!

-Chris Shehan

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Digital Painting Basics

For the past few months I've been teaching 6th and 7th graders the art of digital painting. That's the age I gained a serious interest in doing art for a living, so it was an opportunity I had to take up. If one or two of these kids pursues art as a living, that'd be awesome. I told them I'd share their most recent pieces here, so here they are.










Monday, October 29, 2012

Fanart - The Walking Dead - Michonne

I haven't seen the new season of The Walking Dead, but I've read a lot of the comics and Michonne is by far my favorite character. Robert Kirkman is a creative genius and everything about The Walking Dead is amazing, but Michonne takes the cake. She is such a cool character. I love her history, I love her personality. Rick is alright. But Michonne is walking badassery. I hope I did her justice with this painting.

-Chris Shehan

Friday, October 12, 2012

Character Concept - The Reaper

This is a quick character concept. This guy is awesome. Can't wait to paint him in action.

-Chris Shehan

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Fanart - Adventure Time

Here's some Adventure Time fanart. I'm a big fan of the show. I think it's this generation's Ren & Stimpy. It's weird. The art is crazy. But it's entertaining and very creative. So I wanted to do some fanart of what these characters would look like in real life.

-Chris Shehan

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Creature Concept - 009

Never really tried my hand at creature design, other than a few attempts here and there. I see some great stuff out there and I'd love to be better at it. Here's a quick one. A few hours.

-Chris Shehan

Monday, October 1, 2012

Fanart - Lucy - LMS

So I dunno if you've read Dan Luvisi's Last Man Standing, but I do know that you need to. It's a game changer as far as art books go and the art and story are epic enough that they got picked up by Paramount for a movie, soon after publication.

This book itself is a big inspiration to Badassery Studios and it inspired us to do an art jam based on the book. Here's mine. Everyone else is still working on theirs.

I chose the character named Lucy. In 2008 when I was starting to take my art seriously, Dan had posted an image of this beautiful character, wielding two guns, falling from a building with the face like she was more calm than she'd ever been. From there he created a world of characters and eventually his book. The main character is pretty awesome, I'll admit. But I've sort of had a crush on this character Lucy since it was at the same time I was starting to really work on my art.

So I hope you enjoy Lucy. There are a lot of WIPs and Detail shots of this painting on my Facebook in the WIPs album.

-Chris Shehan


And another teaser of my upcoming book, The Savior. Much more to come as the year goes on. This is just the beginning.

-Chris Shehan

Monday, August 6, 2012

Comics - The Savior promo


Quick promo for my upcoming comic, The Savior. 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Friday, July 13, 2012

Fanart - The Dark Knight Rises

I'm friends with and follow a lot of artists on Facebook, Twitter, DeviantART, etc. And a lot of them have been doing The Dark Knight Rises fanart in anticipation for the final installment of the latest Batman trilogy. I for one am very excited about this movie. Batman is one of my top favorite super heroes. He's dark, gritty, and risks his own life for a city he grew up in. He sacrifices relationships, friends, and his own money to do this. Not to be a vigilante and not for some vendetta. He knows the police can't do it alone. Anyways, this Batman piece was heavily inspired by Dan Luvisi who also did a recent Batman and Bane piece, and has done Batman fanart for the previous movie as well. Which you can see here.

So I hope you enjoy my Dark Knight Rises fanart and I hope the movie is as good as if not better than the hype. Can't wait to see the completed trilogy, even though I'm sad to see it end.

-Chris Shehan (ZhourRules)

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Facebook

 I'm on Facebook! Follow me on there for art, sketches, WIPs and stuff I don't post anywhere else!


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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Interstate 60


Speedpainting commission for a motorcycle riding, car fixing, drag racing, handlebar mustache wearing 60 year old for his 60th birthday. My cousin got me to do this for my uncle who's turning 60. It was all his idea, I just brought it to life. I gotta say, this was a fun one. This is the life. Cross country road trips, seeing beautiful things. I'm all about experiences and travel. Enjoy!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Art Jamathon Challenge # 2 - Venomized

It is most definitely that time again! Time for another Jamathon!!! I'm super busy right now, but I felt I needed something fun for me and you guys to work on. So this is another fanart jam. I gave in. Again. BUT, like the last one, this one has a twist! So let's get to it.

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Symbiote Pictures, Images and Photos

Symbiote Pictures, Images and Photos


CHALLENGE: VENOMIZE A CHARACTER
-Imagine the symbiote that turned Spiderman and Eddie Brock into Venom got on another character. Design the look of that character (try to do one that hasn't been done or make it as unique as you can if possible).

EXAMPLES:
Symbiote Pictures, Images and Photos
Symbiote Pictures, Images and Photos

RULES:
-You must opt in by commenting here and saying you're in.
-It can be your original character.
-It can be Marvel, DC, or any other company (video games/movies included).
-It can't be a character from Spiderman.
-HAVE FUN :D

DEADLINE
-11:59 PM, May 27th 2011 (as long as I get it before the following Monday)
-All on-time entries will be shared on BadasseryStudios.com , our Facebook Page, my personal Facebook Page, and ChrisShehan.com. All of those get a lot of traffic daily, so it's definitely good exposure for you, so get them in on time and do something cool!


I'm excited to see what everyone does!

-ZhouRules (Chris Shehan)

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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Sketch - Adventure Time

I don't normally post sketches here, but this one is finished enough to show. This is for Robert Barnett's Adventure Time Crossover Art Jam! Either draw characters in Adventure Time art style, or draw Adventure Time characters in another universe. So fun. I would have done a more finished painting for this, but I've been on a deadline so I could only do this quick sketch, but I do like how it came out.

I love Adventure Time. It's such a weird show, but I love the art and the vibrant colors. And it's a funny show too. I'd say it's this generation's Ren & Stimpy, but I bet there's more adults watching this than kids! Anyways, I had a lot of fun with this. I tried to give it a sort of super hero comic/noir feel.

Robert Barnett is a member of my studio, Badassery Studios, and that guy is just oozing with talent. He has a cartoony art style that he executes perfectly, he's also a filmmaker and a musician. He's a well-rounded artist for sure. He's worth checking out if you wanna see some cool stuff.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Illustration - Tex Mechs

This would probably be a movie on the SyFy channel. I did this for the Bloodsports Challenge over at Crimson Daggers. I had a lot of fun with this. The topic alone was fun to mess with. Western meets mechs. I love crossing two worlds like this. It's fun and interesting.

I had never drawn mechs before. So I was excited I'd get to try. It's harder than I thought, but funner than I thought as well. The design might not be great, but for my first mech design I'm definitely happy with it. The design was heavily inspired by Ashley Wood, as well as modern military tank design. You can see the painting studies I did of military vehicles below.

I definitely want to experiment with more mech design because it's interesting and something I should learn anyways. Playing with shapes and functionality is a great exercise. You'll see in my design process I used silhouettes at first to get a good idea of shape and form. Which is what mechs are essentially.

Process


Designs

Composition Sketches

Studies




Friday, April 6, 2012

Illustration - Wolf Blitzer: Full Moon Quarterback

I did this for Bloodsports which is a challenge held by Crimson Daggers. Crimson Daggers is a free online study group that I recommend all digital artists take part of in some form. They help you improve by doing critiques, live drawing all the time, and challenges like this that force you to learn while also helping you create an image for your portfolio. So it's a win/win. Even if you don't "win".

For this challenge we had to pick between 3 ridiculous topics. I chose Wolf Blitzer: Full Moon Quarterback. No limits, you could take it literally or not, the only rules are you have to show your studies, sketches, and reference, and the image has to have a background. They require studies, sketches, and reference in every challenge to make sure that were learning and not just entering art. It's like when your math teacher says to "show your work". Which is great. And I did learn. A lot.

I never used to do studies for my finished artwork. I'd just go. But studies actually help A LOT and now I'm doing them all the time. Why are studies good? They force you to understand what you're painting, and how things work, to bring a more realistic feel to your images. For example, for this challenge I did studies of a football player and a couple movie stills from American Werewolf in London. This way I had fresh on my mind the way a lit stadium looks, how a football helmet, football uniform reflects light, textures, what cool werewolf transformations look like, and so on. So then when I get to painting from my mind, everything is easy. There's no struggling. And I know the image would have looked much different without the studies. I remembered the way the werewolf's hair looked, the way the football players looked with the bright stadium lights, the way I painted the grass. Because I understood it all I could easily apply it to a painting from imagination.

Here's a detail shot of the face.



And here's some of the studies I did for this piece. (1-2 hours of painting each)



Process