WAD THE BUCK? Artist's Lifelike US Dollars Draw Police Interest

This is the astonishing work of a southern Chinese artist whose ultra-realistic copies of US dollar notes have drawn police attention.

Shi Yunlong, 30 - from Northeast China and living in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province - uses a technique that makes his hand-painted dollars appear exactly like real things.

He can even replicate details like colour-changing ink and produce imitation watermarks.

The striking similarity between his work and the real thing has amazed tens of millions online.

But it also captured the attention of local police, who have inspected his work for possible forgery offences.

Shi, who shares footage of his beautiful work on Douyin - the Chinese version of TikTok - said that he has liked drawing ever since he was a child.

About a year ago, he happened to see a short video blogger drawing animation images such as SpongeBob SquarePants on the dollar, and found it very interesting.

Shi said: "I just wanted to imitate and draw one, but I don't have real dollars, so I thought about drawing a dollar."

The artist said: "First I use a ruler to determine the size and proportion, then I use a pencil to draw a rough line, then apply the base colour, use a liner to draw details, and finally use colour chalk to colour."

Shi said that when he started, he did not consider the legal aspects.

Later - as his fanbase grew - some official accounts of the police even began to comment on his posts.

At that point, Shi said he realised he needed to consult lawyers to avoid breaking the law.

In addition to the full set of US dollars, Shi also tried to hand-paint British pounds, euros, rubles and other banknotes.

The artist that he also encountered many difficulties during the creation process, the most difficult of which was the colour-changing ink.

He explained: "I used green markers to draw at the beginning, but netizens said they didn't look like it, so I went to find paints.

"I used various materials such as car paint, nail polish, and acrylic. I tried for two months before I succeeded."

Shi's painting of dollar bills was inspired by the scenes played by talented actor Aaron Kwok, who portrayed a skilled hand-painter of dollar bills in the 2018 movie 'Project Gutenberg'.

Now, he said he set a goal for himself, hoping to draw all kinds of banknotes in the world.