How to Draw a Face: Free KS2 Art Worksheet (Ages 7 to 9)

Why face proportions matter

When children draw a face from imagination, they often crowd the eyes, nose and mouth into the top part of the head. The result looks baby-like or unbalanced, which can be discouraging. Teaching a simple proportion rule early gives children a reliable framework they can return to every time they draw a portrait. The key idea is that the eyes fall at the halfway line of the head, leaving generous room above for the forehead and hair. From there, the other features follow: the bottom of the nose sits about halfway between the eyes and the chin, the mouth about a third of the way from the nose to the chin, and the ears between the eye line and the bottom of the nose. The gap between the eyes is about one eye wide. Knowing these rules helps children see drawing as something that can be learned, not a fixed talent.

How to use this worksheet

Begin by talking through the proportions together using the portrait on the sheet. It is a cartoon, so the eyes are bigger than real eyes, but they still sit near the middle of the head rather than near the top. Then work through the questions. A mirror helps: your child can check each rule on their own face, for example by resting a finger on the bottom of their nose and noticing that it lines up with the bottom of their ears. Finally, let the child colour the portrait, choosing skin, hair and eye colours that match themselves, a family member or an invented character. Colouring also asks children to look carefully at the separate shapes that make up a face.

Extending the activity

Once children understand the basic layout, they are ready to draw their own faces from scratch. A useful next step is to fold or lightly pencil a faint horizontal line across the middle of an oval and use it to place the eyes, then a second light line halfway between that line and the chin for the bottom of the nose. Encourage experimenting with different expressions by changing only the eyebrows and mouth, which shows how much feeling a face can convey with very small changes. For a cross-curricular link, children can draw a self-portrait to accompany a piece of writing about themselves, or sketch the face of a historical figure they are studying.

Linking to the KS2 curriculum

This worksheet supports the Key Stage 2 art and design programme of study, which asks pupils to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, with a range of materials. Learning a structured approach to portraiture is a clear, age-appropriate way to develop drawing technique. It also lays groundwork for later work on proportion, observation and the formal element of shape. Teachers can record evidence of progress by keeping the completed sheet in a sketchbook alongside a freehand portrait drawn afterwards, showing how the child has applied the proportion rule independently.

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