The art of boobs

24 thoughts on The art of boobs

1. I love ovens! And criticism of the comics industry!

2. “Women should not have cleavage without a bra.”

   All this time I thought it meant I was just really small…

3. Love it! Boobs that look like boobs!

4. I particularly liked her pointing out what boobs do when a woman lies on her back. As I’ve liked to put it, “When a woman lies down, breasts that aren’t made of plastic either disappear or fall into her armpits.”

5. “Hips should be around the same width as a woman’s shoulder” Really? REALLY?

6. *immediately forwards to comic-reading, gamer husband*

   i think my favourite bit is “Nipples move with the boob”. i kind of want it on a t-shirt. also, yes, when prone, the breasts respond to gravity like everything else. they fall sideways and, for larger breasts, back toward the chin!

   (the link to Ovens’ site has an extra ” at the end which is borking it.)

7. Eh, it’s better but speaking as both a woman who has breasts and an artist with lots of experience drawing nudes, no two breasts are alike and some of those truisms are just plain incorrect (for some breasts). Observation still is and always will be the best way to draw the human figure.

8. Man, something like this would be great for art classes to go over…it’s amazing what people don’t know about breasts. I brought in a waist-up drawing of a nude model I did to an art class once, and one of my fellow students (a guy) ‘critiqued’ it by pointing out that “you drew her boobs different sizes!” Yes, because they were different sizes, darling. That is a thing. :p

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10. Bagelsan:
    I brought in a waist-up drawing of a nude model I did to an art class once, and one of my fellow students (a guy) ‘critiqued’ it by pointing out that “you drew her boobs different sizes!” Yes, because they were different sizes, darling. That is a thing. :p

    THIS!

    and some people’s nipples have minds of their own and point in two different directions.

    (it’s not just me, is it?)

11. Reminds me of the odd phenomenon in a lot of anime where the breasts bounce in different directions. Like, one bounces up while the other bounces down, or they sort of rotate in opposite directions when a woman jumps/lands.

    I’m not saying it’s IMPOSSIBLE, I’m just saying that … breasts really don’t do that ever.

    Also, I am sick of seeing people with boobs similar to mine described as having “sagging” boobs (implication being that they’re old and gross and ewww). Just because they’re teardrop shaped doesn’t mean they’re sagging. If they WERE sagging, I would say there’s nothing wrong with sag, but because they AREN’T SAGGING ANYWAY, it’s just stupid and inaccurate. Kind of like calling skinny girls “fat” just to try to make more people really insecure.

12. @ tinyrevolution: yes, really.
    Not always on everybody of course, but on average, on women as well as on men, the hips are about as wide as the shoulders.
    Of course most people deviate from the average, but I think her main point is: real women aren’t shaped like Barbie. Their sides do not curve way in at the waist and then way out at the hips, and the shoulders are probably wider than you’d think.
    Nothing wrong with that, is there?

13. Haha, Bagelsan, I sit for live drawing classes. And the instructors (and mostly the students) are always really hush-hush when they point out what stark shadows my fat rolls cast, or that my boobs are really sitting that much lower.
    I always have to chuckle a little at their awkwardness. Me, I don’t have a problem with any of that, and I think if you do, you shouldn’t be naked in front of thirty clothed people.
    And I think it would do a lot of people a lot of good to visit a European sauna or a lake where everybody of any gender goes naked, and you get to see all shapes, sizes and colors – without airbrushing.

14. Also, I am sick of seeing people with boobs similar to mine described as having “sagging” boobs (implication being that they’re old and gross and ewww).

    Seriously — do we talk about “sagging” penises? Sagging beards? Maybe we should start. I mean, they point downwards! The entire male body sags inasmuch as it is the slave of gravity and cannot float in mid-air.

15. I find it interesting that the advice on how to draw “accurate” boobs… only shows ONE type of breast, all over the whole page. That’s not how women’s bodies work. Anyone who thinks all breasts can be described with “teardrop” isn’t that far ahead of the curve.

    (Seriously, apparently nature itself can’t draw because my body doesn’t do plenty of what that advice says it “should.” Since when do all women have hips and shoulders the same size?)

16. I’ve totally talked about saggy balls before. So I think some het women do, but we don’t glamorize un-saggy balls. e.g. never have I ever been like, “I fucked this really hot guy last night. He had the tightest nutsack I’ve ever seen!” — as compared to guys who talk about tits like they got paid to sponsor them.

    @caperton, I read through that entire comic and then started reading one linked from it. Thanks, haha.

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18. Bonn: Reminds me of the odd phenomenon in a lot of anime where the breasts bounce in different directions. Like, one bounces up while the other bounces down, or they sort of rotate in opposite directions when a woman jumps/lands.

    I’ve always been impressed to see burlesque dancers twirl their tassels in opposite directions, and have tried doing this (with no luck). Takes talent to get your boobs going in different directions like that!

19. Seriously — do we talk about “sagging” penises? Sagging beards? Maybe we should start. I mean, they point downwards! The entire male body sags inasmuch as it is the slave of gravity and cannot float in mid-air.

    This reminds me of a comment my mother made once to me when I was a slightly self-hating kid. I was trying to explain to her why the male body is “objectively” more attractive and streamlined than the female body, and doesn’t have the “weird” lumps and blobs female bodies usually do, and she shut me down immediately with a “HA, I don’t think so; what do you think all that stuff guys have in their underwear does? Now that’s weird and lumpy and unstreamlined!”

    So I pondered that for a while and actually ended up feeling better about my oh-so-awful developing curves and bumps — everyone has odd protruding bits! Things swing and jiggle around and we gravity-bound bags of water are powerless to stop that, so just chill the fuck out. :p

20. Since when do all women have hips and shoulders the same size?

    I read that bit as referring to the actual bone structure of most female-bodied people, rather than meaning the colloquial “hips” that refers to butt and upper thighs and the whole volume there. So our shoulder-blades/ribcages/collar-bones should not be drawn way tinier than our pelvic bones/femur joints, but all the flesh can be added on in whatever size and shape is appropriate.

    (That might be a very generous reading, of course! But I like thinking about how the bones connect under flesh when I draw anyways, so I assumed those proportions are what she meant.)

21. tinyrevolution:
    “Hips should be around the same width as a woman’s shoulder” Really? REALLY?

    One thing you see a lot among comic book superheroines is a ridiculously racktackular figure on top of hips that are half as wide. (And in between, a waist too tiny to hold any internal organs, which they’ve probably hidden in their boobs for safe keeping.) I saw that note as a reminder that on an actual female body, hips are generally wide enough to hold up the rest of the body without tipping over.

22. sophonisba: Seriously — do we talk about “sagging” penises?

    Not sure if serious…

    Anyway, I remember having a book from, roughly, the fifties on drawing people that had similar types of advice on boobs. There are obvious reasons why an artist drawing superheroes wouldn’t follow life drawing advice though.

23. My nips don’t move with my boobs. It has provided myself and others with hours of entertainment.

24. I really liked the picture and how there were little comments on them, kind of saying do this, not this.

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