Eight college students in northeastern China's Jilin province have drawn a portrait of retiring US basketball great Kobe Bryant in a snow field.

The lifelike portrait of a beaming Bryant, captioned "forever 24", which is his jersey number, covers a snow-coated basketball court at Beihua University in Jilin city.

It took four hours for the students to pull off the detailed work on Dec 6, using simple tools such as brooms and buckets.

The creators said they were showing respect for the 37-year-old Lakers guard, who announced his retirement after the 2015-2016 NBA season.

Bryant is in his 20th year with Lakers. He is one of most popular stars among over 300 million basketball fans in China.

Watch the students making the portrait here