On a trip to China in 2011, I was thrilled to visit the Forbidden City, the place where the Chinese Emperors used to live and where few, aside from the royal family and workers, were allowed inside. It was a fascinating place to walk through and imagine what it must have been like when the emperor lived there. There were a lot of Eurasian Magpies and Large-Billed Crows flying over and landing on the buildings, and I knew that I had to do a painting of these birds with the interesting and colorful Chinese architecture.