How to draw EMPIRE

Greetings my tangling friends 🙂

Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving Day holiday and this year I’m really looking forward to it because life seems just a little less fraught/hectic than it has been the past several years. So there’s both a “day off”, and a delicious feast to enjoy!

For the curious: I’m preparing a pretty traditional dinner, a whole turkey breast with dressing, mashed potatoes, and haricots verts with shallots. [BTW, the links are to my favorite, trusted recipe website. I have yet to be disappointed in anything I’ve prepared, exactly as they’re written – and we’ve enjoyed many, many of Jenn Segal’s recipes. If Once Upon a Chef is new to you and you try any of her recipes, be sure to tell her I sent you 😉 ] For dessert, I’m thinking Sticky Toffee Pudding.

.oOo.

Today’s pretty tangle, Empire, is another from Florida CZT Rachael Schwartz whose Herosq we explored a little earlier this month.

Empire is the recent submission that sent me searching through the “on hold” archives for CZT Susanna Redaelli’s Orciolo. You’ll observe they have a similarity in appearance but they’re not quite the same and are constructed differently.

Empire is constructed of a shape often referred to in design as scales (fish scale-inspired), a scallop shape often found in Art Deco pieces. Whereas Orciolo is built on an ogee grid. Both elegant tangles with lots of “relatives” on the site. The Zentangle®-original Tagh was one of the first of this particular type on the site but it’s constructed using rows of offset scallops with no “airgap” between each one the way Empire is created.

Rachael writes,

This tangle, Empire, was born after watching a Netflix series. As happens to all of us Tanglers at some point, I see patterns literally everywhere. Empire was inspired by wallpaper I noticed in the background of a particular scene. I quickly snapped a shot of it and then started deconstructing. While the wallpaper was basically the first example on my step-out, the more I played with the individual tangle, the more I realized how versatile it is.

For my example of Empire I didn’t think I had enough space at this scale to add the pretty rounding or striping embellishments Rachael includes in her examples so rather than clutter it up I left it as is. Lots of options to play with though.

Rachael illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Empire below and she includes more tiles demonstrating ways to use it in a variety of compositions.

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. These images are for your personal offline reference only. Please feel free to refer to the images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to the images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. (Small side note: if you look at the legalese in Pinterest, you are legally responsible for obtaining permission to post every photo that gets ‘Pinned’. Giving credit or sharing the source link doesn’t count.) Thank you for respecting these rights. “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” ~ Albus Dumbledore

As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours. Your thanks helps motivate them to continue to share! And please share a link to your favorite tangles on social media. Thanks!

Check out the tag rachaels for more of Rachael’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Whether or not you are celebrating this special day, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such an important part of this wonderful, caring, sharing Zentangle community.

With much love and gratitude not just today, but every day.

Related Links

1. Looking for tangles by Artist or Type? For details visit the ABOUT > HOW TO FIND TANGLES BY ARTIST OR TYPE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site.
2. What is a Zentangle? — if you are new to the Zentangle Method, start here for the fundamentals.
3. Zentangle terminology — a glossary of terms used in this art form.
4. How to use the site — an excellent free video tutorial showing how to use the site as well as pointing out lots of useful features you might have missed.
5. Linda's List of Zentangle-Original Patterns — here is the complete list of original tangles (aka "official tangles") created and introduced by founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, including those not published online. If you are new to the Zentangle Method I highly recommend learning a few of the published Zentangle classics first.
6. "A Zentangle has no up or down and is not a picture of something, so you have no worries about whether you can draw a hand, or a duck. You always succeed in creating a Zentangle." Thus patterns that are drawings of a recognizable naturalistic or actual object, figure, or scene, are not tangles. A pattern is not always a tangle — here's what makes a tangle. TIP: tangles never start with pencil planning.
   • Un motif n’est pas toujours un tangle — Qu’est-ce qu’un tangle ?
   • Un diseño no es siempre un tangle — ¿Qué es un tangle?
7. How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns
8. For lots of great FREE tutorials on TanglePatterns, click on the TUTORIALS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page.
9. Strings! Have we got STRINGS! Click on the STRINGS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page for 250 different (free) Zentangle-starters. More than enough for any lifetime!
10. Never miss a tangle! FREE eMAIL NEWSLETTER - visit the SUBSCRIBE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site and sign up to get notices delivered free to your inbox.

.oOo.
Enhance your Zentangle experience while supporting TanglePatterns:
CURRENT EDITION! TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, 2024 Edition
	The 13th Edition of the TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE is an instant-download 109-page interactive digital eBook/PDF containing approximately 2,000 tangles on the site from May 2010 through December 31, 2023. It's a great resource and a must-have digital tool for using the site. Visit the STORE > E-BOOKS page and help keep TanglePatterns.com going by getting your copy now!
	"Linda, Thank you! I was relying on too few and getting stuck after 3 years of daily working with Zentangle. This has inspired me to ‘begin again’ with renewed excitement." ~ Barbara R.
See the BOOK REVIEWS page for more details on its features and view a sample page. Note: this is a digital product you download immediately when you place your order, nothing will be physically mailed to you.
GIFT ORDERS FOR ANOTHER PERSON: To give the TANGLE GUIDE as a gift, visit this page to place your gift order.
If you're new to Zentangle® and tangling, my TanglePatterns.com BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO ZENTANGLE is just what you need to get started. Also available en Français and en Español.
	This is the only Zentangle book you'll ever need: the fabulous Zentangle PRIMER Vol 1. It's your CZT-in-a-book by the founders of Zentangle®. Visit the STORE tab on the top menu bar or click on the image. For more about the content and to read the rave reviews, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab.
NEW! Now available in KINDLE format for $9.99. Spanish Edition here. Japanese Edition here.
"Absolutely the best Zentangle Book yet! As an accomplished artist I used to think I did not need instruction on this art form. How wrong I was! My tangling improved by leaps and bounds after reading this book. If you think you have Zentangle down then you need this book more than ever!" ~ Kris H
.oOo.