Riniifish’s world is crawling with life, glitchy and surreal, straight from the depths of her own head. Her bugs—weird, colorful little creatures— reflect parts of her mind, shape-shifting with her moods, thoughts, and the way she sees the world.
Growing up in rural China, drawing was her way out. It was a space to escape, rewrite reality, and make sense of things. Over time, that instinct turned into a full-blown digital universe where nostalgia collides with tech, and intuition meets experimentation. Now, her bugs are evolving yet again, taking on new forms, new meanings, and maybe even new realities.
Here’s how she’s expanding her universe in Superstudio.
The bugs in your work don’t just serve as illustrations—they feel like part of a living world you’ve been building for years. What drives you to craft narratives around them instead of focusing on standalone images?
Since I started creating bugs, they’ve always been a way for me to break myself down and rebuild. I think as an artist, when I have questions about the world, my instinct is to look inward for answers. Right from the start, giving my work a personal private feeling came naturally. It wasn’t hard to do.
But in the last two years, something shifted. I started feeling smaller like just a tiny thing floating inside this giant universe. That feeling made me want to step back and look at myself from farther away. And as that changed, the way I tell stories and build my world started changing too. Now, I think I’m looking outward more.
“I started feeling smaller like just a tiny thing floating inside this giant universe. That feeling made me want to step back and look at myself from farther away.”
Drawing is central to your process—every line and detail feels intentional. How does working digitally impact your approach? Do you find that the precision of digital tools limits the spontaneity of your creativity?
I actually think digital tools open up way more possibilities than they limit. Everything is always changing, and I love that. For me, digital tools broke a lot of the old rules I learned through traditional art training. It’s not just about visuals, either—I’ve been experimenting with sound and music too.
“I actually think digital tools open up way more possibilities than they limit. Everything is always changing, and I love that.”
Superstudio. introduces a new kind of logic to image and video creation. How did working with AI change your process—if at all? Did it push your ideas further or shift your usual flow?
Animation, effects, and audio have always been a challenge for me. Unlike drawing, where you can just put an idea down and see it immediately, those things work differently. You can put a lot in and not get the result you expect.
Superstudio helped me explore those areas without losing the feeling I wanted in my work. It let me experiment while still keeping the essence of what I was trying to make.
“Superstudio helped me explore those areas without losing the feeling I wanted in my work. It let me experiment while still keeping the essence of what I was trying to make.”
There’s a strong sense of nostalgia in your work, while AI-generated art often leans toward hyperrealism or abstraction. Did working with AI align with your vision, or challenge how you define your aesthetic?
I didn’t want AI to change the core of my work—I still want to keep my original visual language. Right now, I’m more interested in using Superstudio to play with animation, effects, and sound rather than changing how my art looks.
Your visual language is super meticulous and expressive. If an AI were trained on your work to create a custom model, what aspects do you think it would capture well, and where might it miss the mark?
I think it could probably handle the shapes and structures especially if I ever push my work into 3D. But textures? Not so much. So far, I haven’t seen results that feel 100% right to me, maybe because I care a lot about keeping my original visual feel.
With digital tools’ features and possibilities advancing day by day, creative authorship is becoming more fluid. Do you see AI as enhancing your control over your work, or does it create a sense of distance between you and the final piece?
I think I have more control. I don’t feel any distance yet.
As a creator, if AI can’t do what I want, I’ll just sit down and draw it myself, spend days painting a flower, or a snail, or more bugs—that part doesn’t bother me at all.
