2D Background - Sketching Layouts

After doing the tonal studies I had to start sketching my landscape to figure out how I would have a clear foreground, mid ground, and background. We were given this piece of text as a starting point for our backgrounds: 'There were clouds with soft, jewel-coloured pastels bouncing off them. The sky was a soothing blue and met rolling, gold-green hills at the horizon. Summer trees swayed gently, reflected on a cool lake. There was a momentary flutter of birds across the sky, which added even more of a sense of movement and realism. In the foreground of the landscape was a boy's bicycle leaning against a tree. A path ran past the tree and along the water's edge and disappeared into the background.'

My first attempts were very messy, but as I kept sketching I came up with some good starts to layouts. As I went on I thought about how I could change the scene, whilst still keeping to the description I was given. I made the tree in the foreground become slanted, or I made it a different type of tree. Similarly, I varied the size and shape of the lake, and how the path met it. I mostly struggled with creating a big area of empty space where I could put my animated characters.

I then made some plans for my layout digitally. I found the landscape in the text a bit too boring, but I wanted to still keep my landscape as simple as possible so I can focus more on the realistic painting style. Therefore, I added my own elements but I also used the text as an outline, so I kept the tree in the foreground, had a path, and some hills/mountains.

I went for more of a Japanese landscape, and I used these images as reference.

I liked the rustic fencing round the path, so I used this instead of the bike as my 'man-made item'. I also liked the reflection on the river, so I wanted to include this too. I changed the tree to a willow tree, as I thought it'd be a challenge and I thought it suited the softer look of this landscape.

I made my document 5600x1080 so I could create a panning shot, and I made the foreground, mid ground, and background on separate layers so I could edit them individually. At first I struggled with the perspective, so I added a grid in another layer as a guide. I think this design is ok, but needs some work, and I think it'll get better with every version I make. Again, I struggled to leave a big area for my animated characters, so I will try achieve this in my next sketch.

Version 1:

Version 2:

Sketching Designs: