A fresh start hopefully

As you can see I've given this baby a fresh coat of paint and all that and am considering trying to actually use it for something. My tumblr will forever be my artblog but must be something good I can use this for in the mean while. I've also began deleting old posts on this thing because they're quite frankly rubbish and stupid. Also, my insatiable need to release classified information about my projects on the world wide web has been more or less stamped out. Or rather I have people in person to do that with.

Since I can put a lot more artworks into this than I can on tumblr in a single post, maybe I can put like images together here. Use it like a minor gallery or something. That might work.

Tadaaa

I don't know how to actually define this blog. I'm not sure what purpose it serves. I have a website at Jonathan Nelson Designs.com, but it can't decide whether the domain is renewed or not so that one is down. Maybe I should gut this one and turn it into my official site? My tumblr will have lots of reblogging and stuff but this could just have artworks. Also I have to delete most of the old posts, because they give away too much of the stories of these characters.

Essentially I have this burning desire to explain stuff about my characters, for the simple fact that I think their stories are just so damn interesting! I can't get enough! I'm just going to have to though. For now, visit Jonozoom's Microcosm for my actual artistic exploit updates.

Ugh I’m such a horrible father! D:

Yeah it’s been an entire summer since I’ve been here last hasn’t it?

Well I’ll have you know that I’ve been spending it in an extremely busy and work-addled state – alternatively undercut with spectacular bouts of procrastination.

I'm now in second year at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and the work load is fairly stressful. In light of this I’m going to revamp my timetable as of tonight – hopefully – to accommodate a better online presence.

Prepare for incoming blogroll!

I can be found at:

deviantArt: jonozoom on dA and MandelaSix on dA

YouTube: jonozoom’s channel 

Tumblr: The Jonotoans Invade! and LipsLipsLips

Twitter: @Mandela808 and @jonozoom 

and saving the best for last:

My work site and online portfolio, Jonathan Nelson Designs.com

And of course the Phantom Force 5 itself.

Stay tuned for new content!

I have a tumblr

Yeah I have a tumblr account now, just in case anyone is interested in following me there.

The Jonatoans Invade!

Enjoy!

Ciao.

“Hey, big-headed child…”

“…Are you the terran humanoid known as Jonathan Nelson?”

By the way, she’s holding a device called a Stellar Scanner, using it to display the details of who she’s looking for.

A sketch I literally did a few minutes ago. This nice lady (above) is a scout/retriever representative of the war-planet Jonato Omega Prime. The Jonatoans are one of the various humanoid races that I drew on this page (right).

I don’t know what her name is yet – if I’m even going to give her one – and I also haven’t gotten down the phonics of the Jonatoan language so I don’t know what her name would even sound like.

Usually when I’m thinking up alien languages, I have to compare them to the sounds of earth languages. For example the characters from the beginning of this post are from the Planet M. Their language along with most of the languages of the other planets in their solar system seems to be a fusion of Japanese and whatever language Egyptians spoke.

If not that then I compare them to the various calls of animals, made into more significant codes and patterns.

I think the Jonatoans have very deep speaking voices, and use roars, breaths and growls. This results in them sounding like they’ve been swallowing razors when they speak English or any other Earth languages.

I like the Jonatoan design for their clothes because despite those on the big sketch page above wearing what’s considered as “casual wear”, their outfits are very battle-ready. One recurring theme is the front of their suits remaining open when dressing casually. They believe everything that really matters for the body is in the torso, therefore it is coveted and must remain uncovered when out of the battlefield.

I apologize for the lack of colour that you may be seeing for the next few days. As you can more than likely see, I do not get much if any colouring practice, on or off of the computer.

I intend to get more practice in, and also see if I can practice drawing realism digitally.

Ciao.

Cute girl

 

Random sketch of a girl that I drew about a month back. Many of those who have viewed my sketchbooks frequently complain about the figures of the women I draw, suggesting that they all have large breasts, and all have hourglass figures.

Personally I don’t agree with this assessment completely. Not all of the women I draw are ridiculously well endowed… but truthfully, most of them are. This problem only refers to random sketches, and not so much characters which I am happy about.

So with that I decided to practice more drawing women with more conventional shapes and curves, or even none at all. I have to admit I really like this pic, so much so that I attempted to colour it. She has such a pretty face, and she still has fairly thick legs which I will always enjoy on a female figure.

More to come.

Ciao. 

Hey all.

Summer has almost arrived. I  am currently in the process of completing my A Level examinations, and then I have a series of entrance exams to complete as well.

It is my hope that I can return to posting when it is all said and done.

I do not have anything to present at the moment, and I apologize for those who were genuinely looking forward to seeing a new post if such people exist. Right now I am slightly traumatized by how little energy I have at the moment.

Oh well… Back to studying…

Also, this post is made thanks to my mother’s laptop… and viewers like you! Thank you!

Ciao

Wacky Names

Okay, felt like doing another post. Just makin it up as I go.

In terms of comic book allegiances I am a DC man. I’ve been trying to figure out why exactly and still have yet to come up with a definite reason. At first I assumed it was because DC has more iconic characters, except does it really? I doubt it.

You could argue “Are you kidding? The trinity: Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman are like the most iconic comic book characters.” but alternatively one could assert “Wolverine.” putting yourself into a circle of oh-yeah-that’s-true-ism that can and will leave you baffled. At least under this argument.

I did realize something close to the most plausible reason, that being the fact that there are more detectives in DC (appropriate) and I love a good detective story. I don’t know who my favorite superhero is, but it’ll help his chances if he’s a sleuth.

Another is a weird but simple fact, I can find more DC characters with really, really stupid-sounding names.

Bare with me here.

These names are so stupid that they sound awesome. Perfect example, the Legion of Superheroes.

Now if you ask me, these guys have the lamest names in all of DC superteams except for one other that I will get to don’t fret. It’s just that, there’s something about their names being so dumb and corny sounding, that makes it so cool. I think the idea is that, superheroism is weird already. Throwing on a costume, taking up a secret identity, running off and fighting crime. Therefore I believe there needs to be some lenience on how serious comic book heroes can possibly be portrayed. Even the coolest member of the trinity – of course Batman – is guilty of having a kinda funny-sounding name. I mean think about it… Batman?

In this regard the LoS takes the cake still. I mean… Lightning Lad… Lighting Lad? Eventually it gets changed to Lighting Man, but you know what? I think it should have been left alone. The fact that his name is goofy kind of makes him more iconic as a character. Weirder names are easier to remember.

To mention the rest of the Legion Trinity, Cosmic Boy can pass. Despite the fact that after a while he is no longer a boy, yet he keeps them name, that’s when the goofiness of his name sets in and he starts to become more memorable. Saturn Girl is a stupid and cool name, only because it sounds really odd, and at the same time if you didn’t know anything about the Legion you’d find yourself hard-pressed attempting to determine what her powers are from her name. “She shoots rings or something?”

Short post today. I just felt like typing so I did. I got the doing what I want part down, now I just gotta figure out how to make money off of it. Interbutts, give me munnies.

I hope to get a bio up, I’m just not sure when it’ll happen. Later all.

This is my evil playlist

Hopefully it works.

Haven't done one of these in a while

Hey all. How has the new year been treating you? Good I hope. At any rate I was bored so I decided to post something.

Recently I have been trying to get more into the graphic design practice. I sketch constantly, but I never seem to find time to hone my other skills, I'm not sure why... At any rate. Graphic design - more than likely, like many other art-forms - is fun to do when you are idle and need to kill time. Why? Because you can make easy excuses for getting practice in, which is always good.

For example: recently I discovered the folder properties in windows XP, and was going crazy on my various My Pictures sub-folders, changing default icons to icons of cameras, picking specific pictures to represent specific folders, and also - and this is where the graphics comes in - designing covers for the different groups of images.

Here's my favorite one, for the image folder "Nature Calls - A gallery of the works of art in nature"

The next is what I consider the better piece but still not my favorite (If that makes sense at all) "The Strobelight Seduction Gallery" a piece inspired by the works of Progressive House musician Kaskade. Beautiful music this man(?)/woman(?) makes. It helps calm me down, power me up, and I am frequently inspired by it, as the percussion resonates with my mind and my soul. Unfortunately blogger is going awol (as is the formula) so it won't upload the Strobelight Seduction pic. More than likely they're all going on MandelaSix, so if you want you can see them there.

Toodles

Your subscription to the Future Times

Okay here's an example of stuff we should have right now seeing as this is the futuristic world of 2010:

Holographic "Newspapers"

Old me reading a HoloPress

This was an idea that I had thought of when I was writing a novel for my Space Impact fanstory. I would call it fanfiction, except there's no manipulation of previously existing character's in the Space Impact story. Only new characters based within and around the realm of the Space Impact mythos. The only mention to the old games I made was of its star Geneva, and even so it was at a passing glance.

At any rate, the Holographic Newspaper aka HoloPress is basically like an Amazon Kindle with the exception that rather than having to buy each book and then download it like the Kindle, the HoloPress only requires turning it on and getting a subscription. Then it will receive the signal sent out by whichever news agency it covers, and project the stories into the Projection Frame for viewing and manipulation.

The stories will still follow a news paper format, and the Projection Frame has touchscreen capabilities allowing you to "turn through the pages" with a flick of the thumb. Processors are getting smaller and smaller. Microchips doubly so. I saw a projector the other day that connects on to the bottom of your cell phone. And I know that hologram technology is in use by armies and scientists. We have WiFi signals that span entire states... AND ITS 2010? WHY DON'T WE HAVE THESE YET?

I am thoroughly disappointed in you futuristic world of 2010!

Happy New Year Ya'll

I know late... AGAIN. christ.

Happy New Year everyone. Wow, a new decade. WHERE ARE MY FLYING CARS AND HOLOGRAM NEWSPAPERS? AS IN SERIOUSLY. I'm idle. I think I'm going to draw something and put it up here. brb.

Okay a little late for christmas but...

HERE YA GO!

MERIIIII KURISUMASUUUUUUU

Merry Christmas all. Seasons greetings to you and yours...

You know what. I think I can give the internets a gift. Don't get your hopes up but my next post may have something extra in there.

Goodnight and godspeed.

Manapul Art

A cover from his most recent run on The Flash: Secret Files

A page from his run on Adventure Comics

Renaissance

Artist Suggestions: Manapul

I decided instead of having nothing to present I could instead promote some artist's that I'm fond of on dA. Today's artist is Francis Manapul aka manapul on deviantART.

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, he is a comic artist currently working for DC. He does art for the most recent run of Action Comics, Superman/Batman, and most recently he is working on a new run in the Flash series called "The Flash: Secret Files".

He has a nicely polished style that involves using a fine-tipped brush for inking rather than a pen, with some spectacular results.

I'm not really a comic person, but this guys art - along with many others that I have discovered recently, really make me want to get back into it. If not for the stories at least for the good art. His run on the Superboy stories in Action Comics seem the most interesting to me.

I'm sorry I can't get anymore images, but I still can't figure out this image uploading thing. Maybe I can just leave the pics to another post.

manapul on deviantart

Go check him out!

Seriously though... why?

As in, now quite a bit of the time when I get a drawing craving it's digital these days, but no. I can't feed my craving.

You know with the hand problem, it wasn't actually constant. The hand would disappear and reappear whenever it wanted to, thus allowing me brief and few periods where Ps could be used. But no. That was too convenient. The computer has to completely shut down... Sigh.

At any rate. I can only do traditional sketches, at least until the comp is fixed. Which I suppose is not that bad since that's what i'm usually doing but... gaw! Even worse i think the only reason I want to draw digitally so much is because its not available to me. I only want what I suddenly and miraculously can't have.

RANTRANTRANTRAEGRAEGRAEG.

I uploaded two new vids on my youtube account jonoZOOM, making claims of putting effort into making videos. I don't believe it myself but you never know. I'm looking forward to my supposed epiphany.

If I can't even work for the things that I love then how can I work for the things that I don't love but I need. Sigh.

Emooooooooo.

Starstuff contemplating the stars

Okay everyone, it is official. The universe hates me.

Not only is my Ps continuing to cease to function, but on top of that, now my computer has stopped working... completely and utterly.

I don't know what you want from me oh great cosmos. Constantly spinning above us like some kind of infinitely complex Big Ben, only those like you can fathom your reasons. Unfortunately for my sake, I am not one of those.

I am currently typing this on my mother's laptop (I love you mawm!) and am thoroughly displeased at the current situation. GAW. SO ANGREH.

Articles of Association

Another aspect of the Big Ego mythos - My favorite and most developed - is the Articles. Around the fifth episode Chris is notified by Big Ego's on-board AI, Kel, that the Ardenne uniform based armor that BE wears is not permanently attached, and is instead can disengage and transform into a set of mecha known as the Articles.

The Articles are inspired off of the clothing in my closet. This means that not only does BE have a large collection of different armors he can choose from, but he also has a miniature army at his disposal.

In their robot forms, they are designed off of animals; existing, extinct or mythical. There are even a handful of humanoid articles as well. For example, one of the ones I am going to mention today.

BE initial armor is known as the Student Configuration. Chris can access many different armor configurations throughout the series. The Student Config is composed of 4 different articles; in descending order of awesomeness:

The Golden Scholar -

The first and most powerful humanoid article, it composes the bulk of the Student Config and is based off of a standard khaki uniform. In robot mode it is an extremely durable battle-ready robot, with golden blades that can retract into its wrists and concussion cannons that fold out of its shoulders. It has great speed, lacks flight capability but can make up for it with its powerful AI.

In Article mode he increases every aspect of BE, while disabling some of his design specifications. For example: outside of Student Config, BE has steam jets in his heels and his hands can form into guns. In the config, he can use neither but his speed and strength is heightened five-fold.

Come to think of it if I'm talking about the Articles, I should probably have talked about BE first... oh well! That's for another post.

Uh... right! Next is the Shining Navy Salamander.

It originally gave BE access to a laser array that folds out of its back, but I think I want to make it simpler. It represents the Ardenne tie, and its abilities in robot and article mode are pretty much the same.

It deals with light and flares and the like. Able to generate a beam of light so bright that, to quote Og of 'Mike, Lu and Og' fame "Point this baby at the dark side of the moon and there is no dark side!". It can also fire off flares to disrupt heat-seeking projectiles, call for help or disorient opponents during battle.

I think for a finisher, the tie can disengage and form a sword, that BE can use to slice his opponents into many pieces with the power of light. Where BE performs one slash the sword will produce 7 other equidistant slashes on the target.

Next is the Quick Brown Coyote , and it serves two purposes.

1) It represents a brown leather belt, and is the locking mechanism for keeping the now two halves of the Golden Scholar together while equipped to BE.

2) It gives BE access to two retractable rockets hidden in its thighs. These increase speed, jumping distance and can even induce temporary flight.

In robot mode it, like the others, can be used to attack with retractable claws and the like, but it is primarily used as a form of transportation for Chris. It has a third mode where it can transform into a hovercraft form just big enough for two, capable of reaching speeds of 200mph.

The last is the Rusty Rhino and it represents a pair of brown leather shoes.

Very durable in both modes, this article can topple the biggest adversaries using data supplied by an internal processor known as the MassCalc, on their size, weight, center of gravity and the force in moments required to turn them about their axis.

As shoes for BE it can produce braces from either side of each foot, that can lock into the ground ensuring stability when handling a weapon or grappling with an enemy. It is also equipped with a set of tractor treads, to give BE another manner in which to move about his terrain.

Next post I'm probably gonna talk about BE himself, but I don't want to give away too much on the web considering this information is only copyright protected through dA. I don't know how far that spreads.

Also to those who are thinking "Wow! It's a good thing you stopped yourself before 'giving away too much' and only stopped at the design specifications for the main robot.", I laugh at you. Why? Only because you may think this is a lot of info, but I'm just scratching the surface of how much I've put into this series. You haven't seen anything yet, and... your not gonna see much more. At least until I make this an actual series.

Also I need a scanner. I command the internets to buy me one immediately.

Reason for absense

Okay the problem now is that not only does my mind refuse to remember that I have to put something here at least twice a week (I mean at least), but also Photoshop is refusing to work.

I am currently faced with a problem where when I start Photoshop - I have probably complained about this before - no matter what tool I select, it always shows the hand icon for it. I've had this problem for a couple months, and I have been trying to find a remedy for the situation. Scouring many online forums I noticed that if this problem was mentioned at all, the overall consensus was that I should press Ctrl+Shift+Alt during Photoshop's startup sequence.Doing so would reset the user settings to default and hopefully solve the problem.

Say if I closed Ps with a specific colour or brush type applied. The user settings would be where this information is saved for when I come back to the program at a later date. With these deleted, even if there was some preference mistake that Photoshop generated or if this problem was a user error, going back to default should erase those changes.

After attempting this procedure the first time it seemed to have worked, so in a very unscientific manner I fell under the impression that it would work every time. It turns out that the hand literally goes away whenever it wants to, regardless of if I use Ctrl+Shift+Alt.

There will be times when I forget to do it when opening Ps but it works like a dream, and then there are other times when I pull it off perfectly and it tells me to talk to the hand. Piece of crap.

I need to reinstall it or something, like seriously. Unfortunately it was installed under most peculiar circumstances and I require assistance to do so. At any rate I am completely Ps-less indefinitely.

I do have other programs though. I mean, I have Corel DRAW which is handy but a little confusing. Also many moons ago I was introduced to an amazing program that resembles the love child between my two image-rendering-program-loves - Photoshop and MS Paint - known simply as Paint.NET. If you like the low-resolution of Paint or do a lot of Oekaki, but would love more flexibility in terms of layers and brushes and the like, then I would recommend Paint.NET.

Unfortunately I have not used Paint.NET in a while and have lost that spark. Alternatively Corel DRAW is so convoluted, whereas Ps is very pick-up-and-use. I can't go back to Paint either only because I'm too used to the freedom in brushes and layers that Ps provides. I used to be the Paint king though. I should show you some of my stuff sometime. But that's for another post.

In the mean time I may have to betray this blog's original purpose of being only for digital stuff, just so I have some content to submit. Well hey we all have to make sacrifices... some less sacrificial than others but still.