Have you noticed Dubbo's entrances look a little different now?

Madison Roche from Dubbo Senior Campus, Montanna McNair from Dubbo Christian School and Alayna Haque from St John's College designed the three new looks for the rhinos.

Their images have been transferred onto the rhinos by local artist Laura Dunkley.

Madison's design showcases the different parts of Dubbo. It contains images from the Japanese Gardens, the clock tower, Macquarie River, Old Dubbo Goal and Taronga Western Plains Zoo.

Madison - who wants to have a career in tattooing - said she was in shock when she heard her design had been chosen for one of the rhinos.

Dubbo Regional Council asked visual arts students to create the designs. There were four criteria they had to meet: clarity and suitability; relevance and strength of the story behind the design; relevance and connection to Dubbo; and whether it was a creative and engaging.

The students created their designs on an A4 piece of paper, then Ms Dunkley had to translate them onto the rhino statues.

"It's far more difficult than your brain imagines it's going to be. You're working off an image that's literally 20 centimetres long and you're translating that into something that's closer to two metres," she said.

"But even translating straight lines onto a curvy rhino with a bit of a belly, that's a challenge."

Overall, Ms Dunkley said she spent about 10 or 12 days painting the statues in the Dubbo Showground pavilion.

"The designs were all very different but all really interesting in their own way," she said.

The newly-painted rhinos will be installed at the Newell Highway, Narromine Road and Blueridge Business Park entrances to Dubbo.