Cannot draw image over than square in XNA

Question

I'm making a pong game. I've been using a simple 44 x 44 .png of a red square as my ball while I've been debugging. The game works fine with this square.

When I try to replace the texture with anything other than a square, I don't see the ball drawn on screen, and I can't figure out why. I'm making my images the exact same size in photoshop, and using either .PNG or .JPG and having the same result, but I can't figure it out for the life of me. What do you think could be causing this issue?

I've left the code for my ball in the text below. My ball's update and draw methods are being called by the GameplayScreen (using MS' GSM sample).

    public class Ball : IGameEntity
{
    #region Fields

    private Random rand;                // Random var
    private Texture2D texture;          // Texture for the ball
    private double direction;           // Directon the ball is traveling in                
    private bool isVisible;
    private bool hasHitLeftBat;         // Checked to see if the ball and bat have just collided
    private bool hasHitRightBat;        // Checked to see if the ball and bat have just collided
    private Vector2 ballPosition, resetBallPos, oldBallPos;
    private Rectangle ballRect;
    public float Speed;
    private SpriteBatch spriteBatch;    // Spritebatch
    private bool isBallStopped;
    private Vector2 origin;             // Locate the mid-point of the ball
    public float RotationAngle;
    private AIBat rightBat;             // Player's Bad
    private Bat leftBat;                // AI Bat
    private float ballRelativePos;
    private Rectangle rectangle3;       // Used to draw the collison rectangle
    private Texture2D blank;            // Texture to be drawn on the collision rectangle

    GameplayScreen gameplayScreen;      // Creates an instance of the GameplayScreen
    Game1 gameInstance;                 // Creates an instance of the Game1 class
    int selectedStage;                  // Pass this into GameplayScreen for selecting easy, medium, or hard


    #endregion

    #region Constructors and Destructors

    /// <summary>
    /// Constructor for the ball
    /// </summary>
    public Ball(ContentManager contentManager, Vector2 ScreenSize, Bat bat, AIBat aiBat)
    {
        Speed = 15f;
        texture = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/balls/redBall");
        direction = 0;
        ballRect = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width /2, texture.Height /2);
        resetBallPos = new Vector2(ScreenSize.X / 2 + origin.X, ScreenSize.Y / 2 + origin.Y);
        ballPosition = resetBallPos;
        rand = new Random();
        isVisible = true;
        origin = new Vector2(texture.Width / 2, texture.Height / 2);
        leftBat = bat; // Creates a new instance of leftBat so that I can access Position.X/Y for LeftBatPatcicles()
        rightBat = aiBat;// Creates a new instance of leftBat so that  can access Position.X/Y for RightBatPatcicles()
        gameplayScreen = new GameplayScreen(null, selectedStage);
        gameInstance = new Game1();
        Rectangle rectangle3 = new Rectangle();
        blank = contentManager.Load<Texture2D>(@"gfx/blank");               

        //   pes = new ParticleEmitterService(game);
    }

    public Ball(Bat myBat)
    {
        leftBat = myBat;          // this assigns and instantiates the member bat
                                  // with myBat which was passed from the constructor
    }

    #endregion

    #region Methods

    /// <summary>
    /// Draws the ball on the screen
    /// </summary>
    public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch)
    {
        if (isVisible)
        {
            // Draws the rotaing ball
            spriteBatch.Draw(texture, ballPosition, ballRect, Color.White,
                              RotationAngle, origin, .0f, SpriteEffects.None, 0);

            spriteBatch.Draw(blank, rectangle3, Color.LightCoral);
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Updates position of the ball. Used in Update() for GameplayScreen.
    /// </summary>
    public void UpdatePosition(GameTime gameTime)
    {
        ballRect.X = (int)ballPosition.X;
        ballRect.Y = (int)ballPosition.Y;
        oldBallPos.X = ballPosition.X;
        oldBallPos.Y = ballPosition.Y;

        ballPosition.X += Speed * ((float)Math.Cos(direction));

        ballPosition.Y += Speed * ((float)Math.Sin(direction));
        bool collided = CheckWallHit();


        // Stops the issue where ball was oscillating on the ceiling or floor
        if (collided)
        {
            ballPosition.X = oldBallPos.X + Speed * (float)1.5 * (float)Math.Cos(direction);
            ballPosition.Y = oldBallPos.Y + Speed * (float)Math.Sin(direction);
        }

        // As long as the ball is to the right of the back, check for an update
        if (ballPosition.X > leftBat.BatPosition.X)
        {
            // When the ball and bat collide, draw the rectangle where they intersect
            BatCollisionRectLeft();
        }

        // As longas the ball is to the left of the back, check for an update
        if (ballPosition.X < rightBat.BatPosition.X)
        {   // When the ball and bat collide, draw the rectangle where they intersec
            BatCollisionRectRight();
        }

        // The time since Update was called last.
        float elapsed = (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds;

        // Rotation for the ball
        RotationAngle += elapsed;
        float circle = MathHelper.Pi * 2;
        RotationAngle = RotationAngle % circle;

        //      base.Update(gameTime);
        gameInstance.update();

    }


    /// <summary>
    /// Checks for the current direction of the ball
    /// </summary>
    public double GetDirection()
    {
        return direction;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Checks for the current position of the ball
    /// </summary>
    public Vector2 GetPosition()
    {
        return ballPosition;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Checks for the current size of the ball (for the powerups)
    /// </summary>
    public Rectangle GetSize()
    {
        return ballRect;
    }



    /// <summary>
    /// Checks to see if ball went out of bounds, and triggers warp sfx. Used in GameplayScreen.
    /// </summary>
    public void OutOfBounds()
    {
        AudioManager.Instance.PlaySoundEffect("Muzzle_shot");
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Speed for the ball when Speedball powerup is activated
    /// </summary>
    public void PowerupSpeed()
    {
        Speed += 20.0f;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Check for where to reset the ball after each point is scored
    /// </summary>
    public void Reset(bool left)
    {
        if (left)
        {
            direction = 0;
        }
        else
        {
            direction = Math.PI;
        }

        ballPosition = resetBallPos; // Resets the ball to the center of the screen
        isVisible = true;
        Speed = 15f; // Returns the ball back to the default speed, in case the speedBall was active
        if (rand.Next(2) == 0)
        {
            direction += MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(30));
        }
        else
        {
            direction -= MathHelper.ToRadians(rand.Next(30));
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Shrinks the ball when the ShrinkBall powerup is activated
    /// </summary>
    public void ShrinkBall()
    {
        ballRect = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width / 2, texture.Height / 2);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Stops the ball each time it is reset. Ex: Between points / rounds
    /// </summary>
    public void Stop()
    {
        isVisible = true;
        Speed = 0;
        isBallStopped = true;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Checks for collision with the ceiling or floor. 2*Math.pi = 360 degrees
    /// </summary>
    private bool CheckWallHit()
    {
        while (direction > 2 * Math.PI)
        {
            direction -= 2 * Math.PI;
            return true;
        }

        while (direction < 0)
        {
            direction += 2 * Math.PI;
            return true;
        }

        if (ballPosition.Y <= 0 || (ballPosition.Y > resetBallPos.Y * 2 - ballRect.Height))
        {
            direction = 2 * Math.PI - direction;
            return true;
        }
        return true;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Used to determine the location where the particles will initialize when the ball and bat collide
    /// </summary>
    private void BatCollisionRectLeft()
    {
        // For the left bat
        if (ballRect.Intersects(leftBat.batRect))
        {
            rectangle3 = Rectangle.Intersect(ballRect, leftBat.batRect);
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    ///Checks for collision of Right Bat
    /// </summary>
    private void BatCollisionRectRight()
    {
        // for the right bat
        if (ballRect.Intersects(rightBat.batRect))
        {
            rectangle3 = Rectangle.Intersect(ballRect, rightBat.batRect); ;
        }
    }

Answer 1

2 things that i'm noticing, I don't think you want to halve your rectangle dimentions when you call

ballRect = new Rectangle(0, 0, texture.Width /2, texture.Height /2);

also, you're drawing this blank sprite on top of your ball, so that if they overlap, you won't see the ball, but if that's the case I don't know why it worked with the square.