Supernote ☓ SIA: An Exhibition of Illustrators' Inspiration Notes
The SIA (Shenzhen Illustration Association) and Supernote teamed up for "Before Creation", a ten-day creative experiment that gave six illustrators each a Supernote device and complete freedom.
The resulting work is on display at Qianyan Bookstore in Shenzhen, which doubles as a Supernote hands-on experience space. Each illustrator shared the story behind their piece, where the idea started, how it took shape, and what it means to them.
王一甯 Jason Wang
Dance and Restraint
A dancer mid-movement, elegant and free, weighed down by heavy prayer beads. It's a visual tug-of-war between freedom and constraint. The multiple arms call back to Eastern religious figures, a nod to how many roles we juggle in modern life and the invisible weight that comes with them. The black-and-white palette dials up the drama, and there's a real contrast between the dancer's flowing body and the solid, heavy beads. It's beautiful, but it's struggling.
王一甯 Jason Wang
Where Plants Feel
Lingzhi mushrooms and an incense burner, drawn with a quiet, meditative touch — the kind of scene that treats plants as living things with their own presence, not just objects to look at. Up top, a finished composition; below, two quick botanical studies. You're seeing the artist's eye at work, moving from the big picture down to the details. The soft, organic shapes of the plants play off the clean geometry of the burner, and the smoke trails are left as white space, giving the whole thing room to breathe.
石头
2026 World Cup
A crowd scene packed to the edges, the moment a team wins the World Cup, captured in pure chaos and joy. Exaggerated cartoon faces, bodies crammed together, everyone losing it. The black-and-white lines of the E Ink screen actually work in the piece's favor here: no color to hide behind, just outlines and raw energy. It feels like you can hear the noise.
LHL
The Lady Knight
A detailed black-and-white ink drawing of a female knight in a fantasy setting. She's not the knight you'd expect, the piece mixes historical armor with something more portrait-like and decorative, quietly pushing against the usual knight stereotypes. Her armor is covered in intricate patterns, her accessories carry religious symbols, but her face is calm, almost guarded. She holds a longsword straight up in front of her face, it's a weapon, but it also works as a wall between her and the viewer. There's something going on beneath the surface about identity and duty. Behind her, lines radiate outward like a burst of light, but that outward glory doesn't match the quiet look in her eyes. Warrior on the outside, something more complicated on the inside.
晨鸣达（CMD）
Happy Planet
This one started as scattered bits of inspiration collected on Supernote, then got pieced together into a single illustration. On this planet, robots drive house-shaped cars through the streets. The whole world runs on a kind of cheerful weirdness, happy and slightly absurd at the same time.
欧野
Mr. Zebra Meets Miss Fish
This piece comes from a real story. I have a friend, Mu Cheng, I met her back in 2012. We completely lost touch for over ten years. Then one day I came across an interview with her and realized she'd been drawing illustrations and writing poetry the entire time. Ten years, same path, never wavered. She was living the life I wished I had. I told her I envied her freedom. She laughed and said actually, her income was all over the place, and that I had a pretty good thing going with steady design work.
So the painting goes like this: Mr. Zebra used to be free on the grasslands, but somewhere along the way he ended up in an office tower, grinding away. One day he meets Miss Fish, sees her swimming around without a care, and thinks, that's the life. Miss Fish says don't be fooled, freedom's nice, but she's dodging sharks and fishing nets every day. Then she goes, "Wanna trade?" So Miss Fish becomes a zebrafish, and Mr. Zebra becomes a dark horse.
kiefan
琪凡速写
City life is fast and it's a lot. It's easy to feel lost in it. For me, drawing is how I come back to where I am. And it doesn't have to happen in a studio, the subway, a cafe, a restaurant, anywhere life is going on around you. I think of myself as a people-watcher with a pen, sketching strangers as they pass by, catching little slices of real life. I've drawn something every single day since 2019, six years now. Small sketches, nothing grand, but they add up. At this point, drawing isn't something I do. It's just part of how I live.
