This tutorial obviously is all about drawing a woman's breasts. In observing some of the kids in my art classes, especially the girls for some reason, I've noticed that half of them don't know how to draw a part of their own anatomy. There are a few things that seem to be consistently missing in any of their drawings, nude or otherwise. I'm going to try to outline some of these mistakes below.

First thing's first: let's draw the easiest thing we can first. The easiest way to draw a woman's body in any sort of style is to start with an outline in profile. It's one simple line all the way down, very little mess with shading, and you don't have to worry about two of everything (noses, breasts, legs) as much.

The chest is shaped the same at the top no matter what size the breasts are; it heads straight down and should meet up with the line below the breast to make up the ribcage. Always keep in mind the skeletal structure underneath the muscles and skin if you're not sure how something will look; a commonly made mistake is for people to neglect important bone structures (skulls, ribcages, collarbones mostly) en lieu of muscles and defined clothing. The result is often that the clothing ends up too small or too large for the subject, making the drawing's body look malproportioned.

The breast itself will jut out at a sharp angle from the chest, and then at a point (the nipple usually) curve more rapidly inward towards the ribcage. The "point" that I'm talking about doesn't have to be pointed, but you can make it that way if you like it better. The important thing to remember is that they are not spheres; more like half a pear.

A common mistake when drawing breasts in profile is to neglect the fact that they are free-moving and thus, restricted only by clothing or gravity. They hang down in profile because of the way the muscles loop around the top and sides. They will not curve in gradually as shown in the picture to the right, and this does look decidedly wrong. Also note that another mistake in this drawing is that the chest is not seperate from the breast at the top either; this makes it look like the person depicted is wearing a shirt or something that is hanging and obscuring the curves of the body, though below the "point" I spoke of earlier, it becomes evident that this isn't clothing, just a mistake.

The restriction to gravity that I mentioned earlier becomes useful when changing body positions. If a person is leaning over, her breasts will reflect this change in position; gravity being exerted downward will cause them to fall away from the body more. The line is still preserved when upright, and as indicated by the pictures below and to the left, the size does not change, nor does the structure of the body itself, just the position of her breasts.

A variable to negotiate other than gravity is size itself. Whether you want the breasts to be larger or smaller, whether to reflect the body size of the person in question or simply a choice of personal preference, there are techniques to making this job easier. First of all, we'll draw two bodies of approximately the same size, and shape, except for the breast size. I have defined three lines on the bodies shown to the left; the shoulder line, drawn at the point of the shoulder (a little below the collarbone), the rib line, drawn at the apex of the ribs (solar plexus) and the bum line, drawn at the fullest point of their, well, ass.

In the picture to the right, these lines are all at approximately the same level. This indicates similar bodily structures. The only thing that is different is the size of their breasts.

 

When women develop, their breasts develop from the nipple outward. The part of the breast that is not muscle or gland is fat. From there, the breast fills out and with weight, is pulled down more by gravity. The larger the breast, the lower they go.

On very small breasts, the nipple (or if you're squeamish, the "point") is right in the middle between their elbow (when the arm is hanging down at their side) and the point of their shoulder. To get larger breasts, simply extend lower, and slightly more outward. Larger breasts are softer and rounder, and (as in the drawing) less pointy and do not protrude as much. (You can actually tell if someone's are fake by the way they stick out from the ribcage.) If you're having trouble adjusting for size, if they seem too large, move the bottom part up a little if only to create the illusion that they are smaller. If they are too small, or too perky, move them down a bit and smooth the curves out.


Now, let's rotate the torso so we can see how things line up from the front. Our shoulder line is still there, so is our rib line, and we even have a new line to contend with; the center line. This line is not always straight; in fact, this line is almost always parallel with the spine.

Breasts still extend out the same way; slower and gradually towards the top, once they reach the point they quickly flit under and a little bit around, making them nice and round. It is important to note that because of the musculature in the upper part of the breast, there is no sharp line where the top of the breast merges with the chest; there is no curve around at the top at all. The line should even extend outward a little bit, especially if the arms are positioned behind the breasts instead of in front (as in, if the person were leaning forward as opposed to hands-behind-back.) Usually the arms are in behind.

In this picture you can see what I mean about the musculature at the top. Breasts are attached to the shoulder, and should not be cut off on top like that. In fact, in real life, if breasts look like that, you can be almost certain that they're fake. You want 'em to look at least semi-real here, not like a couple of grapefruits masking-taped to someone's ribcage. Even professional artists make this mistake a LOT.

Just how attached to the shoulder are they? Well, I'll show you. Ladies, you should already know this; cup one hand over one of your boobs. Yes, I'm going to make you touch yourself. If you won't, I'll just draw you diagrams. Okay, got it? You should be doing this once a month anyway, but more thoroughly. Kay. Now you have your left boob and your right boob. Say your (left) hand is cupping your right boob. Lift your right arm and lower it. Feel everything shift around? Your drawing should reflect that shift if applicable. To tell if this shift is necessary, draw a line down the person's front (you're gonna erase it), that shows exactly where their spine is. If it is curved, you'll need to adjust boobage. Another way to tell; draw your shoulder line, rib line and bum line. If your rib line and your shoulder line aren't parallel, you'll need to adjust boobage.

I've shown you in the picture to the left where your shoulder line, rib line, and bum line are. The bum line is a little high for this picture, but the point is to show the relationship between the three. I've also drawn the center line. Note how it's not straight. Note how the rib line (third one down) and the shoulder line (top) are not parallel. This means I'll need to adjust boobage. To tell where I need to put the boob to adjust, I draw what I call a leaning line, which should be exactly parallel to the shoulder line.

The hardest part about adjusting this is that it's instinctive to tilt the whole thing when all you really want to do is shift one extremity. An easy way to avoid this is to draw in your bum line and keep it parallel to the floor, (if applicable,) or draw your center line and LEAVE IT ALONE.

You should have one of your breasts drawn already; whichever one it doesn't matter.

 By now you haven't drawn your leaning line; once you've drawn your shoulder line in, draw in your leaning line. Unless you're really handicapped, you shouldn't need a ruler. It's alright to eyeball; breasts are rarely exactly parallel anyway. Draw a short little line along the leaning line (just a little tick). This will be the bottom curve of your second breast. Just follow the curve slightly around, and you're in; if your torso is curved, you might not even need to define this a lot. Try and keep the widths even if the subject is staring you straight on. This works both ways too; so if your subject's hips and ribcage are displaced but their shoulders are still parallel to the floor, your breasts should still be parallel to the shoulders.

It's pretty much the same deal if the subject has one of their arms raised. The only difference is that you'll have to sort of imagine where the point of their shoulder will be to draw a shoulder line since that's the part that changes; when you lift your arm, the point of your shoulder goes higher.The leaning line will still be parallel to the shoulder. The only difference is that when doing a drawing from an angle instead of profile or head on, cut down on the curve below the point a little bit (because this movement is more due to stretching than from actual repositioning) and don't forget that the "point" is the focal point of the breast; move it with the rest of it and keep the proportions around it the same when it's moved.

combining the two techniques is pretty easy; it may look complicated to judge where things go, but they're nearly always parallel with the shoulder. Note the torso protruding from behind; make sure not to neglect the torso en lieu of the breasts. The breasts are not the entire torso, just think of them as an extremity. Like a knee is to a leg.

Of course, you're not always going to be drawing busty torsos at straight-on or in profile; you'll be drawing them at an angle. It's actually not that hard to rotate a torso with breasts on it; if you can figure out how to rotate a torso, the only things you have to make sure of is that the shoulder line is parallel to the leaning line, and that you round them out nicely. It's a good idea to even mark off X's where the "points" of the breasts are, if only to give yourself a point of reference. Notice how they're drawn as half-spheres, not full spheres. You could continue the rightmost breast (in this instance) up further to round it out, but think of it as moving the line instead of as drawing a longer one; if you move the line up around to round it out more and make it look less like a head-on view, erase some of the line on the opposite side. This line usually gets covered by an arm anyway.

This concludes the tutorial on drawing breasts. I hope this helps a bit; if anybody still has questions, feel free to e-mail me.

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