It’s a blast from the past, and not just because this is a drawing of a dinosaur, but because I drew it when I was 12 years old.

Here is the history.

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Once upon a time, Jurassic Park came out.
I was 11, in the 6th grade at that time, and of course I was into dinosaurs. I did not draw them as much as one would suspect but about a year after it had been out I suddenly got the urge.

I was 12 years old then and already had sleeping problems.
I was lying in bed unable to sleep. I had a trading card for Jurassic Park that I had scored from a pack of gum (I had many but only one of them is relevant here). On the front was some picture of a raptor and on the back was a bunch of text about raptors and in the upper-right corner was this picture, which I had always admired as being very very detailed and realistic. I decided then to draw that picture.

I turned on only my nightlight to avoid detection from the mother species and grabbed that card and a pencil (not a colored one yet).
The reference area for this drawing was only 1 inch by 1 inch and I was drawing in the dark, my room lit only by a poor nightlight.

At first I did not expect to get great results under those conditions. I was drawing in a 6-by-6 area from a source that was only 1-by-1 and I could hardly see it anyway. But I decided I would draw my rough outline and if that turned out well I would continue.
I remember doing the teeth last and when I put all the teeth in I remember thinking, “Awesome, I got all the teeth in without having to distort any of them.”
I was really ready to go by this point.

I filled in the rest of the raptor, scale-by-scale, fold-by-fold, all with regular pencil. The pencil I do not remember but I believe it was a normal #2 pencil we used in school.

I drew it all in pencil first, but then I decided I wasn’t done.
My colored pencils from school were on the floor or somewhere near my bed where I was drawing, so I decided I would color this one.

I had never colored any drawings before, so once again I was not sure how it would turn out. But I was so excited about it I just kept going on.

I finished the whole thing extremely quickly. It might have been the fastest drawing I have done in my life.
I remember that I started near 9:00 at night. I don’t remember exactly how long it took, but I know I did it all at once and I got enough sleep for the night, so I think I finished around midnight.
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The paper is really dirty as I did not use any “advanced” techniques such as putting another paper under my hand.
I had never read drawing books or watched others draw so I did not know any of these types of things.


I drew this 13 years ago, so the details are not entirely clear, but here they are.

Paper: Sketching Paper.
Pencil: I think #2 for school, followed by some kind of colored pencils also for school.
Time: Not sure but I think 3 hours.


Although I was just a kid when I drew this, and the content is not so popular anymore, I hope you can enjoy it.


L. Spiro