A post-1990 father in Songjiang District ushered his daughter into an imaginative summer during the lockdown with Procreate paintings and computer animations he made.



His work went viral on Weibo, with more than 80 million clicks.



Li Sai, the young father, is an art teacher at a painting studio who lives in Songjiang. During the recent citywide lockdown, he was inspired by the scenery outside his window and created several animated works that soon turned into online hits.



"I was not a professional vlogger. The popularity of my work was out of my expectation. I created the animations as some sweet recordings to enrich my life and delight my family," he said.



"It was a big surprise that they also won favor with so many netizens."



Born in Suqian City in neighboring Jiangsu Province, Li married a Shanghainese woman. After he graduated from the art school of Nantong University in 2016, he followed his wife to Shanghai and started his painting studio.



But the pandemic changed everything.



Decoration of his painting studio at a new address was suspended and the offline courses went online.



All this caused Li to feel a sense of aimlessness and the financial stress of paying rents and earning living wages caused further problems.



His family healed him. The encouragement of his parents and the companionship of his wife and daughter eased his anxiety.



"Before the pandemic resurgence, I returned home from work late, usually at midnight, when my daughter, Jin Er, was already asleep," he said.



"The lockdown allowed me to realize that my daughter is 4 years old and I seemed to have missed some treasured moments in her growth.



"The pandemic which has lasted several years also deprived my daughter of so many opportunities of traveling and seeing beautiful scenery."



Li usually paints in front of the window of his sitting room. The light is good, so is the view. Although the scenery outside remains the same, Li thought of a way to switch its appearance with his paintings.



He started to paint the spring scenery that they had missed with the Procreate software on his iPad.



His wife took pictures of him and his daughter sitting in front of the window.



Li then replaced the scenery out of the window with his paintings of green rice paddies, forest and farm houses by using special effects.



He also painted a cartoon figure touring on a paper plane and used it as a thread to connect the paintings.



"My childhood dream was to tour on a paper plane," Li said.



After his first animation was finished, his daughter saw it and felt very excited. She suggested Li paint a sea in summer next.



"I used to bring my daughter to visit the seaside in Zhoushan City in neighboring Zhejiang Province," he said.



"She rested her face on my shoulder and we enjoyed the beauty of the blue sea together."



Li also painted the school playground and the painting studio where he had studied in his hometown in Jiangsu to give his daughter a glimpse of his youth.



"My daughter is still unfamiliar with the outside world. So I painted a summer billboard and a Ferris wheel in my digital paintings. Next time she sees them in the real world, she will remember that I had painted them.



"And we would like to bring her to see the sea after the pandemic."



For the past two months, Li stayed with his family. While he was painting in front of the window, his daughter would sit next to him, or she would paint by herself or eat some snacks.



For Li, these have become treasured memories.



So far Li has launched four animation videos.



"Some netizens would leave me a message, urging me to create more works. And that really encourages me," said Li.



"I feel honored that the cozy animations I made during the lockdown can delight others."