As a small boy, David Shepherd collected books on Africa, and he had one ambition only, to be a game warden. David Shepherd's early career was, to quote his own words, ‘a series of disasters’. After leaving school in 1949, David went to Kenya and was politely told that he was not wanted. Coming home again, David Shepherd was faced with two choices; ‘to drive buses or starve as an artist’. Rejected by the Slade School of Fine Art as having ‘no talent whatsoever’, it was by good fortune that he met Robin Goodwin who took him under his wing and to whom he owes so much of his success.

David Shepherd started his career as an aviation artist and owes a great deal to The Royal Air Force. Whilst never having worn a uniform they recognised his talent and started commissioning aviation paintings which involved flying all over the world with them. David Shepherd freely admits that he has had some of the most exciting times with the Services, on HMS Ark Royal, going down in a submarine, and with flying in almost every type of aircraft from Harrier jump jets to V-Bombers, and the one remaining Lancaster.

It was The Royal Air Force who flew David Shepherd to Kenya in 1960 and this was the catalyst in his life. They commissioned his very first wildlife painting and, to quote Shepherd’s own words, " I have never looked back".

It was at this same formative time in David Shepherd’s life that he became a conservationist when he saw 255 dead zebra lying around a poisoned waterhole in Tanzania. Now he is internationally regarded as one of the world’s leading wildlife artists but also, because of his enormous debt that he says he owes to wildlife for what it has done for him. David Shepherd is also known internationally as a leading conservationist. One of his first major fund-raising successes was with the painting ‘Tiger Fire’ which raised £127,000 for Project Tiger in 1973.

David Shepherd was awarded an Honorary Degree of Fine Arts by the Pratt Institute in New York in 1971 and, in 1973, the Order of the Golden Ark by HRH The Prince of The Netherlands for his services to conservation. He was made a Member of Honour of the World Wide Fund for Nature in 1979 and received the Order of the British Empire for his services to wildlife conservation. In 1986 Shepherd was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and in 1988, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia awarded him with the Order of Distinguished Service. David Shepherd was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1989 and he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Hertfordshire in 1990. In 1996 David Shepherd was honoured as an Officer (Brother) of The Order of St. John.