"Pre-design" for my next artwork

Depending on what one's approach to design/art is, creating what I like to call a "pre-design" before one actually starts producing the design can be very helpful in saving you loads of time. A pre-design is ideally done  quickly - it is left looking relatively unattractive and contains all of the important elements you envision seeing in the final work, such as layout ratios, representations of the elements that will be present, roughly sketched, but firmly in place. This is the ideal time to do your ratio-ing, as elements are flexible and changes, resizing, moving, adding, removing can be done quickly and painlessly. This stage also give you lots of freedom to find new inspiration, to simplifying and enrich the artwork. Knowing that this isn't the final artwork takes a lot of the mental blockages out of the way.

To produce the pre-design below, I first sketched the idea I had in mine, then I downloaded some free vectors of trees, created the art-board in the golden ratio, set up more ratio lines and plonked the trees on, and added a bit of rough color. The artwork can now be finalized, which will involve merging photos I took of grass and acorn trees into becoming a photo-realistic artwork resembling this scene.

The inspiration for this artwork: One day, a security guard at a building where I had my office told me to go sit behind his desk. Not really knowing what he was getting at, I did so... this was a surprisingly pleasant experience... In front of me I saw a very wide panoramic photo of a nature scene, stuck on the inside of the reception desk. The photo made me feel like I was out and about frolicking in nature. And this is why I am creating this artwork... to provide the viewer with that feeling that they are in nature, soaking in the sunlight, laying or walking on soft grass, surrounded by numerous shades spring fresh greens, and hugged by timeless, caring acorn trees.

Here's a snap-shot of the starting phase: