Hockey fan's realistic pencil drawings amaze with lifelike detail

Pencils and patience are the only tools that Shannon Ross uses to create some of the most stunning NHL-inspired artwork you'll see.

Ross, a 21-year-old resident of Erskine, Scotland, recently posted her portrait of Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon and it exploded. The Avalanche retweeted it and posted her video of the process on Tik Tok, saying they were "obsessed."
It's easy to see why.

"I personally really like MacKinnon and there is no denying he is a fantastic player," Ross told NHL.com via email. "It's good to draw players that I am a fan of as I feel more of a connection with the drawing as I'm creating it. I also know he's popular amongst fans and seems like a good guy in general so from that I knew I wanted to create a MacKinnon piece."
Her first NHL drawing that blew up on social media was of her

, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, but her first-ever hockey drawing was a

of the United Kingdom Elite Ice Hockey League, Brendan Brooks.
Since then she has drawn everyone from

Alex Ovechkin to

Mitchell Marner and Auston Matthews to Penguins legend and

.
She also recently drew an incredible dual portrait of Tampa Bay Lightnig defenseman Victor Hedman hoisting the Stanley Cup and holding the Conn Smythe Trophy.

"Art and hockey are my main interests, so it's even better when I can combine the two. It just makes perfect sense and it makes me love spending hours upon hours making these drawings," Ross said.
Most drawings take at least about 50 hours, she said. The MacKinnon piece took her over 100 hours. She updates a thread on Twitter with each new hockey drawing.

Despite the detialed work, Ross describes herself as self-taught. She thought about going to an art school, but ultimately decided against it.
"I've just really learned to take my time when drawing," Ross said. "I never used to have much patience but I've become more understanding of the process of realistic drawing and that it really does require lots of time and effort to get to that level of detail."
Ross' portraits have become so life-like some replies on social media have questioned if she in fact, just posted a photo, something that can easily be debunked by a

she posts on her art pages.
"Lots of people doubt me... I do take (the doubts) as a compliment though," Ross said. "When someone thinks my drawings are photos it tells me I'm doing a good job as my goal is photorealism."
Ross' body of artwork is available to view on
Facebook
,

,
Instagram
and
Etsy
.