Jeff West Four prehistoric animals in coloured pencil
A scientific beginning
This childhood archive artwork features four prehistoric animals, including a dinosaur. The dinosaur is probably Tyrannosaurus rex, given the small forearms. The stripy tail may not (or may) be scientifically accurate. What is interesting and evidence of my great passion for dinosaurs is that this quartet is a collection of four different ancient animal groups.
That's not a dinosaur
These creatures are not all dinosaurs. Moving clockwise from Rexy, we have Plesiosaurus (a prehistoric marine reptile, yes Nessie), Pteranodon (a prehistoric flying reptile) and what looks like a mammal-like reptile, similar to Dimetrodon.
As a child, my inspiration came from my many books on the subject and also TV. This Dimetrodon is a strong memory of a creature I would spend a lot of time drawing, and I remember his name … Lester. He may have been a dragon, apparently.
Some research filled in the gaps. This character was created by Quentin Blake for his Adventures of Lester series, and I recall watching him drawing this character live on Jackanory in the 1970s. There is an episode on Quentin’s website: Lester and the Olympic Games.
Not all Jurassic
I chose this archive artwork as it also reflects the highly educational content in the 2025 film Jurassic World: Rebirth where (spoiler alert) the cast must track down marine, airborne and terrestrial “dinosaurs”. All three are named as dinosaurs in the movie, which is incorrect … even a child knows that!
The archive folder
This is the folder of some of my childhood artwork, dug up in my mother’s attic. In almost every visit home over the years, another treasure that she had kept and preserved would be donated to me.
