Easy Beginner Tutorial

How to Draw Breasts

A lot of the time when beginner artists draw boobs, they just don’t look real at all.

When drawing breasts, it’s easy to make them look too flat, too huge, too circular, or just… in the wrong place.

It’s possible!

In this lesson, I will be teaching you how to draw breasts with realistic proportions on your female characters.

This is a safe and appropriate environment for learning to draw human anatomy, and I will not show graphic or crude images.

I will show you how to draw breasts while making them anatomically correct, and showing the full shape.

This lesson will have both a How to Draw Breasts Step-by-Step section and an example area after.

The Anatomy of Breasts

If you are going to draw breasts, it’s best to know the anatomy of breasts.

Breasts are mostly fatty tissue, milk ducts, and of course, nipples.

They can be full, flat, and uneven.

Breasts look different when they are in a bra vs. when they are hanging free.

For an in-depth look at the structure and form of the breast, click here for an anatomy visual.

Let’s start by looking at shape:

The first image below (on the left) is a woman wearing a supportive bra.

You can see the nipples are pointed outward, and that the breasts are lifted and separated to show a more full shape.

In the second image (the one on the right) the woman is not wearing a bra.

The breasts hang free and have a more natural, hanging water-balloon-type shape.

When you are drawing breasts, remember that bras matter, and that each woman has a unique shape and size to her.

The BASICS of How to Draw Breasts: step-by-step

In this section, I am going to go over the very bare-bones basics of how to draw breasts.

For the example I am going to show a woman facing forward.

Step One: Start with Circles

Start by drawing two circles.

Something that can help is if you draw a vertical line in the center of the chest, from the clavicle to the bottom of the rib cage.

The bottom center of each half is where you will draw the circles.

This may seem low, but trust me on this.

Step Two: Find the Centers

This part is mostly for knowing which way the breasts are facing and is important especially if you are shading at all.

Draw a triangle (use pencil for this, not pen or marker), the top should be the center of the clavicle.

The bottom two points are where the nipples should be.

From here, underline the breasts.

Step Three: Outline the breasts and waist.

Start to outline the whole breasts.

They should look round, but not like circles anymore.

Think of water balloons. The weight hangs toward the bottom when you hold one by the tie, right?

This is a similar situation.

The breasts should be round, but not circular.

Step Four:

At this point, you can erase your original sketch.

You should have a solid outline for the breasts and upper torso.

Step Five:

Finish the drawing!

You can now add any clothing items.

How NOT to draw Boobs

Let’s look at this important topic first: How NOT to draw boobs.

Just like we talked about before, breasts are far from giant circles under a woman’s shirt, so let’s not draw them like they are.

DON’T make them giant circles.

The problem with drawing breasts in a circular shape is that it makes them look stiff and hard.

You don’t want that.

[convertkit form=2621193]

How to draw breasts from a front view

Proportions: the Triangle

Let’s talk a little more about the triangle we saw earlier.

The triangle is especially helpful when drawing from a front view, or angle view.

This way you can make sure the breasts are even.

Another tip is to leave space between the breasts. Typically, breasts naturally hang with about two inches between them.

When they are in a tight bra or push-up bra, this may be different and they make have a more squished appearance.

How to draw breasts from a side view

Let’s try the side view.

When drawing the breasts straight on from the side, you will only see one.

If the woman is wearing tighter clothing, it is okay to show the cupping underneath the breast.

If she is wearing layers, it’s unnecessary, and the image will look better if you can just see the top outline of the breast.

How to draw breasts in a bra

When drawing breasts with a bra you need to think of a few things.

• What shape is the bra?
• Bras tend to push up the breasts, squish them together, or both.

In the example below, I show you the four steps I use when drawing a woman in a push up bra.

1. Outline the shape of the breasts
2. Shading the top of the breasts
3. Drawing the bra
4. Outlining the rest of the image

How to draw breasts under a shirt (with a bra)

This one can feel a little tricky because you can only see the outline of the breasts.

Here are the steps I used to draw breasts under a shirt:

1. Draw the centerline and the place for the boobs
2. Outline the sides of the breasts and the shirt
3. Start on the shading (the stretch between the breasts)
4. Outline and erase

How to draw breasts under a shirt (without a bra)

This is an image that may remind you of television from the nineties.

In the image below I show you how to draw a woman without a bra. But she is wearing a tight shirt.

1. Draw the outline of the woman, centerline, and breast circles.
2. Draw the triangle to find the nipples, and outline the breasts.
3. From here, I outline my character.
4. Draw the clothing, and erase anything in the background.

In the last image, you can see that I didn’t draw the cup on her left side fully.

This is because with a shirt on, you would be able to see some of her breast outline but not the whole thing.

It looks better and more realistic this way, in my opinion.

Practice drawing different cup sizes

Not all women are large-chested, and not all women are flat-chested.

Practice drawing breasts of every shape and size! Use reference photos to help if you want to.

This is a good way to diversify your female characters and make them as unique as they are.

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See you in the next tutorial!

What to learn next…

If you liked this tutorial, I have a full tutorial on how to draw legs as well.

Thanks for reading, if you learned something, be sure to share!