FREE! - How to Draw a Face: Step-by-Step Instructions

Simply and easily help kids to draw self portraits

These brilliant guided drawing for kids step-by-step instructions explain how to draw self-portraits for Grades 3-6, accurately and concisely. 

Perfect to use during Art lessons to help children follow instructions and develop their drawing technique.

This resource includes 10 simple guided drawing for kids illustrated steps on how to draw a face that can be used Grade K-6 students as a handy reference until they are confident to draw a face without guidance.

Check out our handy Templates for drawing a face, that feature a variety of hairstyles and optional facial expressions.

If you need extra help planning your lesson on guided drawing for kids, make sure to check out our 'My Self-Portrait Guided Drawing Lesson Plan.'

This lesson plan supports the 'My Self-Portrait Guided Drawing Worksheet' and explains step-by-step how to work with children on their self-portrait, thinking about size, colour and shape.

If you wanted to use all of these resources together, why not use the 'Planner' tab on the right-hand side of your screen?

The Twinkl Planner tool is a time-saving method for quickly and simply collating resources, which can then be easily shared with your children and with colleagues and parents.

Best of all, whoever you share your resources with will be able to access them without needing to be a subscribed member of Twinkl. 

Whether it’s for teaching pupils online, collaborative working with colleagues or supporting home learning with parents - the Twinkl Planner tool, with its easy to use drag-and-drop functionality can be a huge time-saver!

For a comprehension session for your art lovers, check out this uplifting Antony Gormley Reading Comprehension based around The Great Big Art Exhibition that’s accompanied by a range of SATs based activities.

More step-by-step drawing activities

We have lots of other teacher-made resources to help you teach guided drawing for kids.

For more step-by-step drawing activities, check out our related resources. 

Including this marvellous Jungle Drawing Activity which you can use at any point in your teaching session. You might also like this My Self Portrait Picture Frame.

We also have these Guided Drawing for kids resources:

• Step-By-Step How To Draw Jungle Animals
• Duplication Warm Up Drawing Exercises
• How to Draw a Dog Worksheet
• Drawing Skills Teaching Pack
• How to Draw Step by Step

To make your kids self-portraits stand out and look great up on a classroom display, why not use our Realistic Photo Frame Templates?

You can even use these lovely frame templates in your art and design class to encourage creativity in the classroom for other drawings!

For more photo frame options, try our lovely Doodle Draft Fancy Picture Frames Worksheet or our Self-Portrait Frame Templates!

How to Draw a Face step by step

Before getting your class to create a self-portrait, why not have a go at it yourself! You could then use your own self-portrait to explain to the class what they are. 

Why not show your class the self-portrait at the start of the lesson and see if they can recognize it's you from it? Can they pick out all your facial features that you have drawn?

Here are all the steps you'll need to draw a self-portrait at Grades 3-6:

1. Start by drawing an oval shape
2. Using a ruler, faintly draw a vertical and horizontal centre line
3. Underneath the horizontal centre line, draw another line between this and the bottom of the oval
4. Measure halfway between the last line just drawn and create another line across
5. Draw on some eyes on the horizontal centre line
6. Draw a nose on the line underneath the eyes
7. Draw a mouth on the line underneath the nose
8. Add some eyebrows, ears and hair
9. Erase any faint outlines and lines that are covered by the hair

What is a Self-Portrait?

A Self-portrait is a picture of the artist drawing it. Before the invention of photography, a painted, sculpted, or drawn portrait was the only way to record the appearance of someone

They have been used to show the power, importance, virtue, beauty, wealth, taste, learning or other qualities of the sitter.

The earliest example of a self-portrait made was Jan van Eyck in 1433. The most famous self-portrait painter was Vincent van Gogh. He painted a picture of himself 37 times from 1886 to 1889.

A self-portrait does not necessarily have to be representational – an abstract or symbolic depiction by an artist of themselves can also be classed as a self-portrait.

If your class need extra help with this guided drawing for kids activity, take a look at the video below for more step-by-step instructions: