Spider Boys and Body Markings [Worldbuilding Sketch WIP] (Patreon)

On O!elli, its common for one's exoskeleton to have a lot of dynamic shapes and patterns on it. Consequently, modifying said markings with additional tattoos and modifications is also very popular!

Particularly for O!elli men, there is social pressure to show off one's markings, they're seen as a sign of beauty and good health. Men who lack dynamic markings often get a lot of tattoos and modifications on their exoskeleton to compensate, though most have at least some basic markings on their face, abdomen, and limbs. (I'll go deeper into this in a proper lore post later)

As I am sure many of you are aware about, every year I do a redraw of an alien spider guy (the one on the right here lol) to track my artistic progress! 2025's redraw is QUITE DELAYED only because I've been revamping the spider designs overall a bit.

I wanted to be more consistent with how their body markings work, and also make sure the symbols and tattoos their bodies have actual meanings rather than being random shapes, also taking more inspo from IRL spider species and African tattoo/bodypaint traditions.

I created a huge sheet of glyphs inspired by African Adinkra symbols (which I will also share later) that I'm now trying to retrofit the previous design with, which has been fun. I WILL finish the redraw I SWEAR I SWEAR. I'm finally getting close to a finalized design I actually like haha