Oriental Magpie

Zoey Tiefenthaler "Oriental Magpie"

8 x 10", Acrylics, 2022 

My inspiration came from my search for different animals that are native to South Korea.  This is something that I want to apply for all of my art classes this year in some way, so I figured painting this animal would be a good challenge for me.  When I came across images of the Oriental Magpie (the species name), I was in love with its colors and overall look.

The process began with me sketching different pictures of the magpie using references I found online.  Once I felt comfortable drawing it, I chose my canvas and began working on the background of the painting.  At first, I wanted to make the background a forest that was blurred to give the magpie a strong focal point for the viewer.  I struggled a lot with trying to blur the background, and after being unsure of the colors I had already painted onto the canvas, I gave up and decided to change it to a different color.  This way, the dark colors of the forest wouldn’t obscure the magpie and the contrast between the animal and the background would be stronger.  As I was figuring out how I wanted to paint my background, I was painting the magpie as well.  I tried to stick as close to the colors of it as possible with its vibrant blues and greens.  Once the magpie was finished, that’s when I changed the background to a bright yellow, using different values of the color to add cloud-like shapes to it.

While magpies in European cultures symbolize bad luck, the same bird is recognized as a symbol of good luck and good news in Korean culture.  Upon making the background change in the painting, I found that I preferred it much more because it essentially uplifts the bird in a positive light rather than dulling it down with greens and browns.  The branch that the magpie stands atop on represents nature itself and the need to preserve natural life, as a whole.

There were some difficulties I had with the process of making this painting.  Of course, I struggled with the background a lot, initially.  I also struggled a bit with getting the tail right on the magpie since it’s a mix of a few different colors that blended together.  If I were to start this project over, I would have first picked a different pose for the magpie itself.  Looking at my project now, I’m not proud of how it looks; I felt I could’ve made it look more dynamic, and I even saw better-looking references when I was halfway done with the painting.  But I wasn’t going to restart everything right then and there, so I kept going.

The style of this piece is Realism, for the most part.  What makes it unique, to me, is the way the bird’s black upper part shines against the supposed sunlight and the look of the bird’s tail.  The hints of turquoise and blue-greens pop and show up well against the rest of the magpie and background, in my opinion.