13 Years

Happy Winter Solstice.  It's been 13 years since I published my very first blog article.

My blog is 13 years old, and I haven't published an article for almost ½ that time.  

And prior to posting in 2016, I hadn't posted for 3 years. 

I started this blog as an attempt to help me get my writing done.  I guess it didn't work out so well. 

 

As I write this article (OCT 4, 2022 – 9:42 AM) I am in Facebook jail for another 24 days.  So I am hoping I will get a number of blog posts written that I can schedule for future publishing.  I have written some on my "I Werewolf."  I'm trying to figure out how to turn my "Blood of Patriots," in my "Twilight's Last Gleaming" series into SpecFic rather than leave it as a simple near-future thriller. 

 

In my last post, I said my drawing journey started 28 years ago in 1994.  And yet my writing journey started 50 years ago, in 1972, when I was 12 years old, and in 7th grade.  My science teacher gave us an assignment to write a short story.  I can't remember if the story was specifically to be science fiction, but mine was.  It was based on all the comic books I had read, and two kids got superpowers after being radiated by a meteorite that had crashed to earth in the middle of town. 

 

That short story was 11 pages long and a day late.  My instructor told me he really liked the story, but because it was late he had to lower my grade to a "B." It was that short science fiction story for a science class, not a writing  been class, that got me started on my hero's journey, but I rejected the call to adventure for a very long time. 

 

In high school, I took all the science electives I could, but I also took all the extra Writing class electives I could take, this included having to journal every day.  In high school, I didn't want to blog my thoughts and feelings and have my teacher read it.  So I journaled things like "well, here I am journaling.  don't know what to write, but I've gotta write something."  Imagine 15 mins of journaling that every day. 

 

I ended up having to take a 5th year of high school.  It was during that time that the entire school system was given a special test.  Based on my scores my high school counselor called in my mom and me, and told us that I was really smart, but a late bloomer, and I was put into a special program.  In this Quest program I was assigned any teacher I wanted to work one-on-one in a  mentorship program.  

 

When I was asked who I wanted to work with I told them, "Mr. Capra," who was my writing teacher at the time.  Unfortunately the depression I've dealt with my entire life kept me from being to get any extra work done, so I wasn't able to take advantage of my high test scores, and being enrolled I the Quest program with a writing mentor. 

 

Later in college I started journalling again.  This time for real.  I journaled by hand and kept my pages in a 3-ring binder.  I did this until about 20 years ago (+/-), at which time I started journaling in word documents, one document for each year.  I did this until 2015, and used OneNote to journal for two years.  It was also in 2016 that I started drawing in my sketchbooks.  I also used these same sketchbooks to journal in and it seems that may be why I no longer used OneNote to continue journaling. 

 

And that brings me back to my drawing sketchbooks.  Going through the old sketchbook pages got me wanting to start journaling again, and to even start blogging again.  I'm also drawing again.

6 Years

It's been 6 years to the day since I've blogged.
That entire blog article was: 

"This Page Left Intentionally Blank."  

 

In MAY 2016, I went to my last NCWA Writers' Renewal Conference. 

After finishing up, I found some old drawing videos I had saved 5 years prior, in 2011.  That got me started down the road of watching more YouTube videos and learning how to draw.  Eventually, I started a channel so I could save my favorite videos in playlists that I organized according to subject.  Then I could collect similar playlists into shelves. 

 

I started using my sketchbooks to journal in AUG 2016, until then I had been using OneNote to journal.  Before that I used Word for maybe a dozen years, and before that, I had hand-written my journal entries in a 3-ring binder for maybe 20+ years. 
 
Back  in AUG, 2022 I returned to journaling in OneNote in addition to using the sketchbooks to journal, and I started sharing those particular OneNote entries on Facebook.  It is this that has started me thinking about beginning to blog again. 

 

In the past, I blogged mostly about my dealing with depression, particularly dealing with depression while trying to write, including while trying to blog, which is why my Blog is entitled "Ruggles' Roamings", which pretty much describes where I went in my journaling travels. 

 

Now I'm thinking about blogging the things I'm learning while I study drawing (and writing). I've been thinking about rewriting my sketchbook notes so that they are more legible, comprehensive, understandable, and just plain usable. Most recently, I've been trying to gather my notes together on the Fundamentals of Art/Drawing, Elements, Principles, and Composition Types. It was gathering together these notes that reminded me I had already been thinking about rewriting all my old notes. It was also what got me starting to think about blogging my notes about what I'm learning. 

 

Part of my drawing habit was to keep my receipts for my sketchbooks and other supplies. According to one receipt, I bought my first sketchbook 14 years before I ever got around to using it.  This would have been in 2002.   

 

My drawing journey started 28 years ago in 1994.  This was the year in college when I took a drawing class as an elective, so I could get 12 credits, and be a full-time student to get my financial aid while I finished up my Senior Project for my Software Engineering degree at Oregon Institute of Technology.  Between 1994 and 2016 I started buying art books, which I only discovered later, weren't really all that helpful, and I've since given them away.  It was during this time that I bought my first sketchbook. 

 

It was when I started watching YouTube videos that I really started feeling like I was learning something.  I have since collected a number of PDF books from places like archive.org that I can use as further reference on top of the videos I so enjoy watching.     

 

I hated art class in high school.  It was more like a crafts class.  My "teacher" couldn't teach how to draw to save his life.  He taught me nothing about the fundamentals of drawing – elements, principles, and composition.  He'd give us an assignment and not show us how to do it.  So kids who could already draw could do it, and could do it quite well.  This experience made me hate "art."   

 

I also love photography and wish I could do more of it as well, but there is only so much time in the day, and with trying to get some writing done, and trying to get back into learning to draw it pretty much eliminates any time/energy for any serious photography.  So lately, most of my photography has been selfies that I posterized/desaturated to use as references for lighting the head. 

 

 

My questions are: 

 

Should I keep the same blog name? I do want to focus on what I'm learning while studying drawing (and writing). But I may still keep including my struggles with depression, particularly when it is connected to my studies. 

If I should rename it, what is a good name? 

Or should I just start a new blog altogether, and what should I name it? 

 

I'll have to think about this for a while. Any suggestions? 

 

 

**** 

 

I am a Child of God and a follower of Christ. 

I am a depression fighter. 

I write Spec Fic, make photographic images, and draw. 

I am a STEAMM lover and a 2A supporter. 

 

These are my stories. 

 

Watch the drawing videos I collected at: 
 
https://www.youtube.com/user/Delta7ServicesGroup/playlists