--- title: Hot Dog Drawing Challenge: Artist Confusing the Internet description: Howard Lee, an illusion artist from Wales, is creating online turmoil with an incredibly lifelike drawing of a hot dog. canonical: https://time.com/4179102/hot-dog-drawing-challenge/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-13T18:44:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:28:43.853Z og:title: The Hot Dog Drawing Challenge Is Confusing the Internet og:description: Hot dog or drawing? og:url: https://time.com/4179102/hot-dog-drawing-challenge/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Hot Dog Drawing Challenge Is Confusing the Internet twitter:description: Hot dog or drawing? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Hot Dog Drawing Challenge Is Confusing the Internet  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 13, 2016 6:44 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 13, 2016 6:44 PM UTC Howard Lee, an illusion artist from Wales, is creating buzz online with an incredibly [realistic drawing of a hot dog](http://time.com/3969798/nathans-hot-dog-emoji/). A video on [YouTube](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/youtube/index.html) called “Hot Dog Drawing Challenge” shows Lee illustrating a perfect representation of a hot dog next to an [actual frank](http://time.com/3970311/national-hot-dog-day/). At the end of the minute-long clip, he squirts ketchup and mustard on both the hot dog and its sketched counterpart before using a knife to demonstrate which is real. The artist wrote that the deceptive image was created with Prismacolor and Copic markers on Daler Board. But the condiments used were real. **Read More:** [38 Things Americans Say They’ve Found in a Hot Dog](http://time.com/3962421/hot-dogs-2/) The video was posted in early December but has recently gone viral, with over 330,000 views to date. Lee’s [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHLsDgq8Hm5v3%5FZCauPdyKQ) is full of similar illusion segments, including drawing demonstrations of an iPhone and a chocolate Santa. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4179102/hot-dog-drawing-challenge/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4179102/hot-dog-drawing-challenge/"},"headline":"The Hot Dog Drawing Challenge Is Confusing the Internet","datePublished":"2016-01-13T18:44:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:28:43.853Z","description":"Hot dog or drawing?","url":"https://time.com/4179102/hot-dog-drawing-challenge/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink","Internet","viral","Art","video","hot dogs"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4179102/hot-dog-drawing-challenge/","name":"The Hot Dog Drawing Challenge Is Confusing the Internet"}}]}] ```