Lifelike Paintings of Swimmers by Gustavo Silva Nuñez

Before you dive in... Painter poses with his lifelike portraits of swimmers giving the illusion that he is about to jump in too.

An artist has brought his paintings of swimmers to life by posing with them playfully, giving the illusion that he is about to dive into the water.Gustavo Silva Nuñez, an artist based in Valencia, Venezuela, creates incredibly lifelike paintings of people swimming in water, his use of light and reflections making them appear three-dimensional.To add to the realism, he poses next to the paintings in strikingly interactive ways, making it look as though he is grabbing onto the swimmers' limbs or shielding himself from their splashes.

In one of the shots, Mr Nuñez is pictured crouching on the floor next to one of his paintings, staring into the water as though he is about to jump in. At first glance, it looks like a picture of a woman coming up for air in a small indoor pool.

Another photo sees the artist painting tattoos onto the arm of a man he is painting. He pretends to hold onto the man's other arm, so that the line between art and reality becomes ever more blurred. In the images, Mr Nuñez, who has more than 62,000 followers on Instagram, looks as though he is right there with his subjects