When drawing human figures , children often make the head too large for the rest of the body . A recent study offers some insights into this common disproportion in children's illustrations . As part of the study , researchers asked children between 4 and 7 years old to make several drawing of men , when they drew front views of male fingures , the size of the heads was markedly enlarged . However , when the children drew rear views of men , the size of the heads was not so exaggerated . The researchers suggest that children drew bigger heads when they know they must leave room for facial details . Therefore , the odd head size in childrens illustrations is a form of planning ahead and not an indication of a poor sense of scale .