Monday, January 23, 2023

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."



Monday, January 16, 2023

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

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

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







Wednesday, January 4, 2023

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

Monday, January 2, 2023

Happy New Year...

 Happy New Year

This year I drew the famous Byron Buxton from the Minnesota twins for my New Year Sketch. I used a thin tip marker and colored pencils on a 6x8 sheet of paper.


Happy New Year everyone. Stay tuned for some upcoming Saints Portraits along with a few videos.

If they want me to go, I’ll go. If they don’t, great.
Byron Buxton

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

My Last Post?

The Flower of Lucca

Another Saint Portrait for the Series




It's finally done. I started this portrait back in February 2022 and haven't gotten around to finishing until now. I originally started recording this one - I only have footage of the face, the rest I just photographed progress pictures.

If you didn't know, this one is of Saint Gemma of Galgani - she was born near Lucca, a city in Italy. She's known for suffering the passion - that is why she's referred to as "Daughter of the Passion," but my sister will tell you more about her life and the many sufferings she underwent on her blog, Today with Miss K. She might even tell you about St. Gemma's Diary that was stolen and burned. She's even got a handy dandy "Saints Biographies and Portraits" tab on the home page that will take you right there.

But, I'm not here to give a biography post, I'm more here to tell you about the drawing. This one's a little interesting because I decided to go with a graphite drawing unlike my other colored pencil drawings. It went well as I was recording the face and then I just never got around to finishing. I'm hoping to video the rest of the series.

Without further ado let me introduce the progress photos...and the video.


This is the first photo after I started drawing again in December.


Her clothes darken here on the right shoulder.


I'm sure you can see the progress here. I don't need to point it out!


Ohh, we're getting closer.


And the final!

The Video






Let me know your thoughts on this portrait of Saint Gemma!

For those of you concerned, this is not my last post, just the last post of the year!

Thank you for Viewing this Blog

Please visit the YouTube channel, Sketched Drawn & Painted - YouTube to see all of the "Saints on 7.25 x 9.75 Paper"

"If you really want to love Jesus, first learn to suffer, because suffering teaches you to love." 

-Saint Gemma of Galgani








Tuesday, November 1, 2022

October is here ... well it was

Pumpkin Carving

Welcome back to the blog. 2022 is already gone and I've barely drawn anything but I do have a nice pumpkin carving to share. We went to Barten's Pumpkin Patch and harvested a few hefty pumpkins and drug them home to carve for the fall season.

And there it is, my pumpkin is the one closest to the camera. I began after I chose a carving idea.



And that is the finished product, the Blessed Virgin Mary. The mailman even complimented it as he delivered our mail.


And this is how it looks with a candle in it at night!

Thank you for looking at my pumpkin!