Following on Monday’s Grassroots dot grid tangle, today we have another type of grid to experiment with in Taiwan CZT Damy (Mei Hua) Teng’s Xadent tangle.
Damy has over two dozen excellent tangles on the site, be sure to check them out!
Xadent was inspired by the Zentangle®-original Cadent tangle which has inspired many offspring that are linked on that “master” page.
However Damy came up with an interesting variation where instead of beginning like Cadent with a grid of small orbs or squares, Xadent starts with a grid composed of crosses. Then the tips of the crosses are connected by simple S strokes that swing from the outside of the one above to the inside of the cross below, in the same manner as Cadent‘s “take off and land” technique. It’s quite hypnotic, and so easy to tangle.
This is Damy’s creative example on a Renaissance tan Zentangle tile using a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen, a white charcoal pencil, a Brown Sakura Micron, and a regular graphite pencil with an interesting variety of fills. Notice how Damy transitions from Cadent on the upper left into Xadent on the right. Lovely!
For my example of Xadent I created the crosses grid in a center panel of the tile instead of going all the way to the edges. This makes an interesting ribbon or border-style tangle. When you do that you end up with a “ragged edge” of cross bits dangling along the outer edges, so I remedied that by adding an aura and filling it with ink — similar to Damy’s tile below with the black border. In Damy’s tile above she cleverly finishes her “ragged edge” on the right with what I call stoppers (tiny orbs) on the bottom of the crosses with a very nice effect. Along the bottom edge she used the dangling crosses to add her initial.
Damy illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Xadent below where she features it in a simple monotangle. Below Damy demonstrates a variation of Xadent using S strokes in place of the crosses of Step 1.
Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the steps images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs, or to link back to this page. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. They are for your personal offline reference only. Thank you for respecting these rights. For more information, click on the image for the article “Copyrights and your blog.”
Changing the traditional straight cross into an S-curve variation of Xadent:
In this Xadent example, Damy notes when you “Change the size of the cross, the effect is not the same.” Changing the scale within tangles often gives surprising and unusual results and are fun to explore.
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 comment helps motivate them to continue to share!
Check out the tag damyt for more of Damy’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
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- 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.
- "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.
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November 28, 2018 | 
More like this: 
On the Renaissance tan Zentangle tile, the orbs could be looked at as tiny little Christmas ornaments. What an interesting Tangle Pattern and I look forward to the challenges in learning XADENT. Thank you, Damy, for another beautiful Tangle!
Such a simple variation to Cadent but one that produces striking and beautiful results. I know I’ll enjoy this one!
This defintely looks like a “keeper” and a challenging one at that! Shall enjoy feasting on the variations! Thaks Damy and Linda !
What a fun way to give Cadent a fresh and unique look. Thank you!
Damy, I have always loved Cadent so Xadent is going to be a fun twist! Thank you so much for sharing. I will play with this today.
This was a great way to draw Cadent. Love it! Thank you for sharing!
I’m glad I had another chance to look at Damy’s tangle today.
Linda – I really like the black border on your sample tile. It gives me the vague impression of one of my favorite works by M.C. Escher – the one with white geese flying in one direction and dark geese flying in the opposite direction. I wonder if . . .