Learn to draw realistic wildlife portraits in coloured pencil.

Hello there! I have some exciting news, and I’m so happy to finally share it with you. I am creating a brand new online coloured pencil course, Wildlife in Colour: Animal Portraits in Coloured Pencil, and it will be opening soon.

This course is all about helping you understand how to approach realistic animal portraits with more patience, clarity, and confidence. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by all the tiny details in fur, feathers, eyes, noses, and texture, I’ll guide you through a calm, step-by-step process that makes each stage feel more manageable.

Together, we’ll begin with the foundations of coloured pencil drawing, from choosing materials and understanding pressure to building values, selecting colours, layering gradually, and creating clean, realistic textures. Then, we’ll move into guided wildlife portrait studies, including a lion, cockatoo, great horned owl, otter, and a colourful bonus lorikeet.

My goal is to help you see animal references in a new way, understand what to focus on, what to simplify, and how to slowly bring each portrait to life with depth, softness, and expression.

Are you interested? Join the waiting list!

You’ll be the first to know when the course opens, and you’ll also secure a special waitlist discount. 

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Build strong coloured pencil foundations

You’ll learn how to choose the right materials, control your pencil pressure, build smooth layers, understand values, and select colours from a reference with more confidence.

Create realistic fur, feathers, and texture

You’ll learn how to simplify complex animal details and use directional strokes, layering, blending, highlights to create soft fur, feathers, dark markings, wet texture, and natural-looking depth.

Bring animal portraits to life with expression

You’ll learn how to draw realistic eyes, noses, beaks, whiskers, and facial details so your wildlife portraits feel expressive, characterful, and full of presence.


I’m a Lancashire-based pet portrait and wildlife artist, specialising in realistic coloured pencil drawings inspired by animals, nature, and the quiet details that make each subject feel alive.

Through Shannon Mullin Portraits, I share my work across Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, where I’ve built a community of animal lovers and artists who enjoy realistic wildlife art, gentle creative guidance, and behind-the-scenes insight into the coloured pencil process.

My work is soft, detailed, and delicate, with a focus on capturing the expression, texture, and character of each animal, from the shine in the eyes to the direction of the fur, feathers, and smallest finishing details.

In Wildlife in Colour: Animal Portraits in Coloured Pencil, I’ll be sharing my process with you step by step, from choosing materials and understanding references to building layers, selecting colours, creating realistic textures, and drawing expressive animal portraits with more confidence.

My approach is calm, encouraging, and beginner-friendly. You don’t need to rush, or know everything before you begin. I’ll guide you through each stage slowly, so you can enjoy the process, build your skills, and create wildlife portraits you feel truly proud of.

JOIN NOW!