Saint Michael the Archangel

 Pen & Ink

It's been awhile since I've done any artwork, but I've finally finished another. Recently I've been asked to draw some cover art for a podcast, so this latest drawing is the first of 12 drawings of saints. Saint Michael the Archangel for the month of September. I hope you enjoy this piece. 

The podcast is called, Divine Office 1960 Rubrics. The divine office is prayed daily with portions in both English and Latin. Here is a link to Spotify, Divine Office 1960 Rubrics it is also available on Apple Podcasts. 

I can't figure out why the photo is so blurry...it is what it is. I did this picture with thin tip pens on a 9" x 12" paper. I also did a time lapse of this if you are interested. 

Link to video - Saint Michael Time-lapse

This is actually the first ever drawing of Saint Michael I've done - you could even say this was my first...wait for it...my first stab at it. (get it?) 

I used a famous statue as my reference carved by sculptor Peter Anton von Verschaffelt. This statue sits on Castel Sant' Angelo, a former mausoleum which has now been transformed into a castle during the time of Pope Gregory the Great. The mausoleum was built for the emperor but he died before it was built. And then in the late 3rd century it was transformed into a fortress. 

"According to legend, the pope was leading a procession of people, praying for deliverance from an attack of the plague, when he saw a vision of the archangel St Michael hovering over Hadrian’s tomb. St Michael was in the act of re-sheathing his sword, which the pope took to be a sign that his prayers had been answered." (https://www.walksinrome.com/castel-sant-angelo-rome.html)

This is a photo of Castel Sant' Angelo

And this is the Saint Michael statue carved by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt. This statue wasn't on top of Castel Sant' Angelo until the year 1710.

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Thank you for viewing this art! 

(and maybe you learned something?)

Our Lady of Guadalupe

 From Awhile Ago

I finished this picture awhile ago, but didn't get around to posting it. Hope you like it. This is a drawing of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mary appeared to Saint Jan Diego in Mexico on the Hill of Tepeyac. His tilma is displayed in Mexico City. My drawing below is supposed to look similar to the tilma of Jan Diego's.

I drew this one on a 14 x 17 inch piece of paper with some thin tip pen's. If you look close I mainly used a stoke of the pen in a series of lines and cross hatchings to get the desired shading.

Thank you for Viewing!

What should I draw next? There might be a prize for the winner of the best Idea - If there are enough ideas?

Happy Easter!

 Easter Is Still Here!

It is the 14th day in the Easter season and I have finally finished my egg painting. This year I chose to do a painting of Napoleon Crossing the Alps.

Here is the original. And below is the egg painting.

It's a little difficult to tell what is painted on it with the curve of the egg, but if you see it in person - you see it in person!

Thank you for viewing the egg.

I'll have more art work coming!

"If you want a thing done well, do it yourself." -Napoleon Bonaparte

Coloring Contest

 Take a Gander

I recently did a coloring contest and wanted to post it here so all can see. It is based on one of Ezio Anichini's Loreto illustrations, titled "Mater Amabilis" (Latin for "Mother Most Amiable").

The contest was hosted by a catholic artist, Delphina Rose Art. I ended up using Prismacolors and some other brand of coloring pencils that I can't remember the name of right now.

Please let me know your thoughts below, and thanks again for coming to view my art,

Thank You!

See you Until the next post!

"Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world."

Another Fire Art

 Washington Crossing the Delaware

Although there is speculation on Washington's crossing and of the reality of the painting, I say its just a work of art depicting a true historical event. With that I bring you my second piece of fire art on this blog.

This time I added some color with water colors. I didn't have a large enough piece of wood to fit the whole scene so I at least got the important people person - Washington in there. No, I'm sure the others helped out a lot as well. It's not like Washington is paddling anyway. He just stands in the middle of the boat - what is he doing anyway. Everyone is hard at work paddling or trying to keep the country's flag upright in rough conditions, ice and snow and wind and there is the leader just standing there in the middle of the boat - wouldn't it be really unstable with a couple of men standing up? It also looks like there are way too many people piled in the boat. The front guy's legs are hanging out.

Well, anyway here it is - 

Thank you for reading this post and viewing my fire art of Mr. Washington and his boat ride across the Delaware.

And before you go please read one of George Washington's quotes!

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."

-George Washington

Lily of the Mohawks

2 Years Ago...

Today marks 2 years since this blog was created, January 10th, 2020! It is the official Birthday of the blog, or as I like to call it, my Blogirthday of "Sketched Drawn & Painted." On my first post if you recall was the 18x24 inch drawing of the rosary and the bible.

Here is a snip of my all time stats of the blog. 4,017 views, 56 posts, and 67 comments.

And here is a graph of the all time views. It appears it just keeps dropping overtime! And the highest point is in January! The Blogirthday! Maybe everyone wants to celebrate the Blog's Birthday? I got it, they all want cake!

And here is 2023's projected growth!

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Saint Kateri Tekakwitha 

I finished another saint for the series, this time Saint Kateri - she was baptized as Catherine. She was a Mohawk and the first Native American to be recognized as a saint, but as always, Miss K will tell you more about her on her blog, Today with Miss K.

This time I did another colored pencil drawing and filmed it as well. It was the first darker skinned drawing for me, so it took a little practice to get the right skin tone.

Here is the face, as you can see lots of reds and yellows went into this along with some browns to get a darker tone. It's not like they have a pencil for each skin tone...peach?

I guess I didn't take as many progress photos as I thought - but I do have a video of the drawing from start to end. The skin was the hardest part for me along with the face. The best part was the cloak she's wearing because it shaded very well with the yellows and browns.

And here is a view of the set up I had this time. I've experimented with a few different set ups. This time I used a mount from an older set up and wedged it up against a organizer shelf thingy...whatever you call those. I then used a book to stabilize the mount (the mount is the piece of wood) and then I strapped the camera to the end. It worked pretty well - next time I'll need to remember to put the mount on the other, left side so I have room to draw - I'm right handed so there wasn't a lot of room for my right hand when I got to the edge of the paper.

And here is the final. The only difference from the reference drawing is that there is no background and I also added a rosary in her hands. I used some Fine Touch bicolored colored pencils that I received from my person at Christmas to draw this - they worked well. Thanks person!

I hope you like my rendition of Saint Kateri. In total I recorded 7 hours of drawing, so plus or minus a few, I'd say plus because I had to sit there and think. Please watch the video below or visit the YouTube channel to see more of the videos like these.

Please go here to watch the video - https://youtu.be/w8DYZGokLks

Thanks for reading!

“I have abandoned this miserable body to hunger and any other misery so my soul could be content and have its usual nourishment.” – St Kateri Tekakwitha

Sister's of Charity...

 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

Go here to see the video, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Video

Thank You everyone who read this blog! 

"Live simply, so that all may simply live." - Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton