What do you think?
Rate this book
Morpho: Anatomy for Artists #1
Morpho: Anatomy for Artists
In this book, Michel Lauricella presents both his artistic and systematic methods for drawing the human body—with drawing techniques from the écorché (showing the musculature underneath the skin) to sketches of models in action. In more than 1000 illustrations, the human body is shown from a new perspective—from bone structure to musculature, from anatomical detail to the body in motion. Morpho is a rich, fascinating, and helpful book that can go with you everywhere on your sketching journey.
387 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2017
About the author
Michel Lauricella
32 books30 followersMichel 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
March 28, 2020
Collective illustration of human anatomy based on Écorché by Michel Lauricella, You should use this book as supplement with other anatomy books in order to improve your knowledge on anatomy posthaste.
June 29, 2020
Beautiful illustrations! I love this book, it has helped me quite a bit. I recommend the whole set.
December 23, 2022
I haven’t had a chance to really digest everything since I only have this as a library hold. But I think this is a really good resource for artists. This isn’t a how-to-draw book, but it explains anatomical reasoning like how an ear is leveled to a jawbone or how long an arm should be from the kneecap. It also provides some interesting poses outside of the usual sitting and standing. The artist shows some bigger body types toward the end, which is a pleasant surprise from most art books.
Shapes and simplifying the body are heavily emphasized. The book shows multiple times how to take a shape of a person’s pose, make a skeletal figure, and then add the meat and muscles. It doesn't teach you how to add muscle, but you understand where fat accumulates in the body and how curvatures and certain parts should look. You can fill in the gaps of knowledge easily, I think.
This is a great companion to a life drawing class or when drawing from reference pictures.
Shapes and simplifying the body are heavily emphasized. The book shows multiple times how to take a shape of a person’s pose, make a skeletal figure, and then add the meat and muscles. It doesn't teach you how to add muscle, but you understand where fat accumulates in the body and how curvatures and certain parts should look. You can fill in the gaps of knowledge easily, I think.
This is a great companion to a life drawing class or when drawing from reference pictures.
September 18, 2019
This is a beautifully illustrated book. What sets this apart from other anatomy or figure drawing books is its amount of invented drawing poses. The author has depicted the human form, showing the muscles underneath the skin, in various angles. The drawings are rendered with a dynamic line and minimal tonal rendering.
This is not strictly a “how-to” book and definitely not for the beginner. But if you already have a good foundation on figure drawing and anatomy, the depictions in this book will give a fresh perspective and good alternative to tightly-rendered, hyper-detailed anatomy books.
This is not strictly a “how-to” book and definitely not for the beginner. But if you already have a good foundation on figure drawing and anatomy, the depictions in this book will give a fresh perspective and good alternative to tightly-rendered, hyper-detailed anatomy books.
October 19, 2018
The book is very exciting. Beautiful drawing interesting poises I particularly like the drawing of the body with muscles and bone showing under neath.
I particularly liked the way the body is drawn with bones and muscles underneath. I recommend that anyone interested in anatomy have a look at this book
I particularly liked the way the body is drawn with bones and muscles underneath. I recommend that anyone interested in anatomy have a look at this book
February 7, 2019
More anatomy than art instruction
Great reference for drawing anatomy but no instruction on the drawing itself. This book is good for learning the internal structures and how they bend and fold but it's not an art instruction book.
I'm going to re-read and draw and label along as a way to further understand and memorize the various parts of bone and muscle
Great reference for drawing anatomy but no instruction on the drawing itself. This book is good for learning the internal structures and how they bend and fold but it's not an art instruction book.
I'm going to re-read and draw and label along as a way to further understand and memorize the various parts of bone and muscle
November 13, 2020
This book is an excellent introduction into the human anatomy for artist. It focuses on the bone structures and muscles that create body shapes throughout various rages of motion.
The illustrations are well detailed and understandable.
I will keep this book nearby as a reference for my future model studies.
The illustrations are well detailed and understandable.
I will keep this book nearby as a reference for my future model studies.
July 7, 2021
El primer tomo es una colección de ilustraciones que muestran lo esencial para construir un volumen debajo del pelo, la grasa y la piel. No es un libro de anatomía riguroso, ni tampoco un tutorial encuadernado sobre como dibujar la figura humana, pero funciona muy bien desde la pedagogía de hacer primero y descubrir para qué después.
April 26, 2022
Again, the CAWPILE rating system doesn't really apply, but this book was also really useful. Lots of useful little tips and tricks in this one where it comes to the morphology of the body. Almost felt like I was back in my anatomy + physiology classes looking through the muscle studies lmao
May 6, 2023
Really liked this book to practice drawing .
I have it on my Kindle , and since all the drawings are made of graffito it works perfectly.
Highly recommend this book of you want to practice and learn accurate basic anatomy 🧠🫁🫀
I have it on my Kindle , and since all the drawings are made of graffito it works perfectly.
Highly recommend this book of you want to practice and learn accurate basic anatomy 🧠🫁🫀
July 7, 2023
If your beginning in drawing and want to get better at anatomy and human body just read this and draw every page for like 1/2 month combined with other human model references and I PROMISE you will get better.
This book is so perfect and easy to follow it makes anatomy very fun and interesting !
This book is so perfect and easy to follow it makes anatomy very fun and interesting !
March 4, 2024
An incredible resource for artists trying to get a handle on human anatomy, with plenty of examples of different body types and easy-to-understand breakdowns of complex anatomy. The text is helpful, and the illustrations are easy to understand and copy for practice.
March 27, 2021
Excellent book for artists. It shows what's going on internally but aimed at drawing, not medicine.
November 5, 2021
Excelente libro
Ayuda a entender la anatomía humana, pues contiene dibujos que muestran el comportamiento de los músculos y los huesos, según la pose dibujada.
Ayuda a entender la anatomía humana, pues contiene dibujos que muestran el comportamiento de los músculos y los huesos, según la pose dibujada.
December 26, 2021
this is a top tier artistic anatomy book. copy it cover to cover, read every word, and you’ll know how to draw human anatomy— easy as that
January 14, 2022
I'd never thought how important is knowing the anatomy in order to stablish a better base to draw. This book is a helpful guide to discover the human body geography
January 27, 2022
This book is sexy because it tells you where the fat deposits on the body are
January 31, 2022
Mostly drawings, but some interesting breakdowns towards the end
February 2, 2022
não era o que esperava. estava procurando por um livro para iniciantes com um passo a passo bem detalhado. apesar disso, a quantidade e variedade de formas e movimentos dos desenhos são muito boas.
June 13, 2022
Amazing 🤩🤩🥰🥰🥰
December 11, 2022
Es entendible.
February 15, 2023
This is an essential book to read and keep and come back to for any creative in any industry!
The Unglitch
https://unglitch.io
The Unglitch
https://unglitch.io
February 28, 2023
Es un buen libro que te ayuda bastante con la anatomia artística, tiene varias ilustraciones de diferentes ángulos y masas corporales.
March 12, 2023
Solo las primeras paginas son texto, importante si quieres tener una imagen de lo que haces, el resto son ejemplos
March 22, 2023
Ta chido
June 15, 2023
hai algún fallo de perspectiva pero 10/10
August 22, 2023
Fantastic simplified, and effective sketches that are great as references! Great for artists who aren't beginners, but need to fine tune their understanding, practice, etc
October 30, 2023
I love this book so much, it helps me understand bones and muscles a lot more, which helps me improve my art.
November 7, 2023
Nunca creí que una rodilla me podría hacer llorar
January 13, 2024
On ne peut pas vraiment dire que j'ai terminé de le lire, car il va me servir toute ma vie. Ce livre est vraiment très utile et me permet de progresser en dessin.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews