Li is known as the first painter in the Song Dynasty. The figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, pommel horses and so on in his works are exquisite and lifelike. He is particularly good at drawing horses. Su Shi praised his paintings as having both flesh and bones, and his Five Horses Map can be said to be a masterpiece handed down from generation to generation. The five big horses in the painting were all painted by five people. They use simple brushes to describe every movement of horses and show the state of horse movement in an extremely detailed and vivid way.

It is inseparable from his usual efforts that such a masterpiece handed down from generation to generation can be performed so meticulously by him. In order to draw a good horse, he often went to the stable to observe the horse's behavior, which lasted all day. Moreover, Li also created a single-line painting method. Using simple lines to vividly show the image and texture of what he painted, it can be seen that his painter is very powerful. In order to highlight his superb horse painting skills, many legendary stories have been circulated. It is said that the Western Regions presented a good horse. After repeated copying, Li painted vividly. When the painting was finished, the horse died.

According to "Talking about Haoran Yazhai", when Li painted in the Imperial Horse Prison, the real horse died after painting. At that time, people said that the horse's spirit was brushed away by him, so the horse died. Finally, the breeder stopped Li from painting in the stable for fear that he would paint all the horses to death. In his later years, Li liked to draw tigers on the mountain. There were tigers everywhere, so he sat beside the stone all day. However, he has an unwritten custom of drawing tigers, that is, he doesn't draw tails, because once he does, the tiger in the painting will survive, thus hurting people.

Li is both a painter and an official, but he has made little achievements in politics. Li has a lot of research on traditional painting, not only copying works, but also paying great attention to sketching and boldly creating. The characters he created can tell the difference between the identity and the region from the appearance. His painting method is famous for simple painting. He is good at using line drawing and precise lines to express the image of objects, which has a great influence on later generations.