Portuguese street artist Odeith, also known for his anamorphic graffiti lettering work, is a master of creating larger-than-life urban murals of realistically painted insects.
For those of you not keen on spiders – you may not want to read on…
At first sight, his “Graffiti art” might look distorted and unrecognisable, until viewed from a specific angle. Then, the work begins to make sense, literally jumping off the wall at you – probably to the horror of those of us not that keen on spiders, wasps and the like!

Artist Odeith puts the finishing touches to an image of a mud wasp. Image: Odeith Official Site

Odeith battles a giant Colorado Potato Beetle. Image: Odeith Official Site
Odeith has been creating street art since the 1980s, and has been one of the pioneers of anamorphic 3D graffiti since the mid-2000s, gaining international recognition for his experimental technique, which sometimes involves painting these optical illusion images on differently angled surfaces or corners.

Odeith and a surprise spider, created in 2018. Image: Odeith Official Site

Odeith and spider. Image: Odeith Official Site
Currently back in Lisbon, although in recent months he’s travelled the world taking in countries as far apart as Indonesia and Sweden to do commissions, his work includes large scale murals for major national and international enterprises such as the London Shell, Kingsmill, the Coca-Cola Company, Estradas de Portugal, Samsung, Sport Lisboa e Benfica (football club) and several Portuguese city halls such as Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and Câmara Municipal de Oeiras.
“I was always fascinated with these little creatures because of the colours, shapes,” he says in his official site, “and I think it’s funny to paint them on a bigger size.”
While there’s clearly humour in his work and some of Odeith’s works are for “pure entertainment”, other works carry a serious message about consumerism and poverty – and by magnifying them and placing them front and centre in such a colourfully eye-popping way, this artist’s work reminds us how important insects are within the biosphere – like it of not!
• Check out more of Odeith’s work at www.odeith.com or on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
• If you are interested in having a personal canvas made by Odeith, contact him via his web site, letting his team know the dimensions you want and if you have any specific theme for the painting. They will respond with a commission price
With thanks to John Ridgway for spotting this
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
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