MonoGame.Extended/Docs/Tutorials/Sprites.md

Sprites

A sprite in computer graphics terms most often refers to an image drawn to the screen in a 2D game. A sprite can be a single image, but quite often you'll want sprites to be animated.

Drawing Basic Sprites

source: gamedevmarket.net

Drawing a basic sprite with MonoGame can be done using the SpriteBatch. First, load a Texture2D with the ContentManager in the LoadContent method.

protected override void LoadContent()
{
    _spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice);
    _apple = Content.Load<Texture2D>("apple");
}

Then, in the Draw method you can draw the texture between the Begin and End calls of the SpriteBatch.

protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
{
    GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);

    _spriteBatch.Begin();
    _spriteBatch.Draw(_apple, new Vector2(100, 100), Color.White);
    _spriteBatch.End();

    base.Draw(gameTime);
}

Drawing sprites directly from the Texture2D can be useful in certain scenarios, like drawing backgrounds, but it can be quite limiting when you want to do animations.