January 4th, 2023
The Sister's of Charity was the first sisterhood in the United States and was founded by none other than, Elizabeth Ann Seton, the saint I drew for the letter E. She was born to an Episcopal family and after her husband's death she found Catholicism. The Sister's of Charity was "the first community for religious women established in the United States. She also began St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School, planting the seeds of Catholic education in the United States. Her legacy now includes religious congregations in the United States and Canada, whose members work on the unmet needs of people living in poverty in North America and beyond." https://setonshrine.org/elizabeth-ann-seton/
I'll let Miss K tell the rest in her biography - don't want to steal her thunder as they always say! But I do want to steal her lightning...kidding - I'll tell it how I'll tell it.
The Story
It was a dark and stormy night, lighting flashes blinked through the open shade of my bedroom window, thunder crashed across the night sky, I sat on my desk with lamp as bright as it would go as I tried to make out the thin sketch marks on my next drawing. Just as I was reaching for an eraser to modify the page to my desire an eerie noise caught my attention. The stairs creaked, almost as if someone was walking up them, and indeed someone was.
Next a distinct voice was made out hovering through the air. It was my sister, Miss K. That's odd I thought, why is she up in my room at this hour? I glanced at the clock, and to my surprise it was nearing 2 a.m.
"Oh, are you working on another portrait?"
"Why, yes," I replied.
"Oh, can you do Elizabeth Ann Seton, she is one of my favorite saints!"
"Sure," I answered.
My sister loves anything to do with school, teaching, or anything related to education. She left abruptly and scurried down the stairs to my surprise the stairs creaked not. As she left I kept wondering why she was up here so early and also why I was drawing this early in the morning.
Soon after, maybe a few days, or a week I had prepared a sheet of paper, lassoed a reference photo from google and began to draw. I finished the portrait of Saint Elizabeth in about 3 hours after the pencil touched the paper...And you subtract the short lunch break in between.
I brought the portrait down to the main level floor and presented it to my family members who were scattered about the mansion. To my surprise they gasped, "Woah! That's amazing! Looks just like Saint Elizabeth."
In my head I thought, 'I didn't know you met her."
And then to my dismay, Sister K scurried across the living room floor and into the huge kitchen where we were all gathered at this point and she stood there in shock. "You're done already!" not really meaning it as a question. "Woah! Awesome! I'm going to hang it in my room!"
And that was pretty much how it ended...writing this blog post, that is...Kidding! The above story is purely a work of fiction and nothing in it is true...Well, some parts are, like the part where my sister asks me to draw Saint Elizabeth.
Progress Photos
Here's how it started. A blank sheet of paper. Pretty obvious. That's how most of my drawings start out.
And here is the finished portrait. This one is done with charcoal pencils, one of my favorite mediums to work with. A pretty big leap with one stroke of the pencil...I actually didn't take many photos while I drew since I was videoing the whole thing. So you can see the progress in the video.
The Video
Thank You everyone who read this blog!
"Live simply, so that all may simply live." - Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
