Morpho: Mammals: Elements of Comparative Morphology

Morpho: Anatomy for Artists #9

by Michel Lauricella

Improve your skills and techniques for drawing mammals!

This small, portable book presents more than 500 drawings for 100 species of mammals, collected into categories of habitat—land, water, and air. In this book, artist and teacher Michel Lauricella defines the anatomical characteristics that are common to this class of animals (to which humans also belong) and demonstrates the links between form and function for mammals based on their behaviors, such as burrowing, walking, running, leaping, climbing, flying, and swimming. The instruction and drawings in this book offer profound insights for artists of all kinds, helping you in both your observational drawing of mammals and your creation of imaginary animals so that they appear realistic and believable.

Geared toward artists of all levels, from beginners through professionals, this handy, pocket-sized book will help spark your imagination and creativity. Whether your interest is in fine arts, realistic representation, game design, or creating comic book or manga art, you will find this helpful book filled with actionable insights.

(Publisher's This book features an “exposed” binding style. This is intentional, as it is designed to help the book lay flat as you draw.)




TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

EARTH

Digging

Walking

Running

Jumping

Climbing

AIR

Gliding

Flying

WATER

Swimming

Resources

Genres: Art, Drawing, Nonfiction

101 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 14, 2023

About the author

Michel Lauricella is a French artist who has worked at various fine arts studios in Paris and at Gobelins. He currently teaches at Lisaa and Fabrica 114 and is the author of various drawing manuals.

Reviews

[Zuri]

A wonderful addition to the Morpho series, my only complaint is that it isn't longer! I'd love to see more books on Mammals and possibly see this series venture into birds. If you have any interest in drawing animals and creature design I highly recommend!

[Peter Wright]

I love this book! I love the art, I love the science, I love the paper, and I love the binding. I think this book presents a compelling mental model for understanding the anatomy of all mammals. A single mental model allows you to understand the basic skeletal, and by correlation, basic muscle anatomy of any mammal. Did you know that you and a giraffe have the same number of cervical vertebrae? Not so much as you think separates you from your brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom, to which you belong.

[Sandra Buerger]

I love everything about this book. As an amateur artist, it was great to see all the different forms. I will certainly be using it in my drawing.
As a scientist, the explanations of homologous and convergent forms and just evolution in general were spot on. This would be a great read for someone who wasn't even interested in art but just interested in biology.

[Aleex]

¿Fue todo lo que esperaba? Respuesta rápida NO
Pero esperen, se preguntarán porque 4 estrellas, y la verdad es que aunque no fue lo que esperaba, tuve mucho contexto de diversas especies, como identificarlas y como poder dibujarlas sabiendo que los hace diferentes.
Aunque no tiene mucho de como dibujarlos, si tiene datos curiosos.

[John Majerle]

This is an excellent resource for the animal artist or for anyone interested in the comparative mammal study. It contains excellent illustrations and straightforward explanations of a mammals of mist every form.