Some final painting process shots and notes:

I wanted to have a strong nature presence in the sanctuary, so the central courtyard and fountain became a major part of the image, as did the statues surrounding it - which are allegories to the different arts. Architecturally, the roman arches represent the past/our artistic inheritance, and the geodesic dome covering the central garden modernity/the future.

As I was thinking about story, I knew that I wanted a pair of newcomers just arriving from the outside as our way into the picture - and I wanted them to look like they'd had to fight their way through to get there. As I painted them in, I realised I had the opportunity to push the humorous aspect of the whole artists-as-apocalypse-survivors scene I'd created and added a touch of surrealism by including the giant robot (he's sad, because he can't come in) and fighter jets in the bg to represent the chaos of an outside world that's collapsing - in contrast to the peace and tranquility of the sanctuary.

The final touch in Photoshop

Full project and video presentation:

detial 02

detail 01

that was a close one almost hitting the deadline. <3

Since I have a very specific structure in mind, I start building everything in 3D. This helps me figure out the placement and sizes of things and lets me try out different camera angles and lighting scenarios. I also add placeholder figures for the characters.

I pose some pre-rigged base characters for the statues and model some props, all very rough since I know I will solve the details in the painting stage.

Once I have decided on my composition and lighting I render it out and start the painting process.

As you can see my final render is pertty rough, with placeholder mannequins and no colors, which allows me to be more loose and flexible in the painting stage.

I forgot to post my sketch earlier, but I'm posting it now, in case it's of interest to anybody. 
I sketched this along with 4-5 other very quick and rough sketches exactly 5 days ago. I usually prefer to work over clean drawings, but due to time constraints I had to forego that step. 
In retrospect some of the other sketches might have worked better, having more clear focal points, however I personally love the challenge of trying to make a weirder composition work and I also love adding little details everywhere, which this comp lends itself well to. Regardless of how successful I'd rate my final piece, this was really enjoyable to tackle, as I usually don't get to do many pseudo "fisheye" pov pieces. I'll definitely give it another shot, but with adequate time for a proper drawing. 
Thanks for reading!

Snowball sphere with the loved ones. Safe space in outer space.

From there I make somewhat tighter sketches, starting to think about composition and values. Also noting down ideas about mood and story.

Almost finished, just need to add some gouache rendering and elements to balance the composition and add complexity

some detail of the composition, the main structure is already done

This is the result after 4 hours of work. The composition is starting to take shape, and the main perspective lines are becoming visible. Specifically, it's a vertical composition, and it was important to clearly depict an above and a below. Each character was drawn from my repertoire of mental images, and the subject is centered around the theme of drawing, the brush, and the paper, and the imagination that emerges from them

First image of the work. With Chinese brush and sumi ink. The paper is 200g smooth, A1 size, and hung vertically on the wall. Each drawing is made without preparatory sketches on the paper, just with a basic idea of the composition: my personal oasis, which is drawing, for me is about following the flow, like a performance, drawing live, in front of people watching. This drawing was also done outdoors in front of my studio in Lisbon, and visitors stopped by from time to time to watch. The drawing took a total of two days to complete

I like starting with scribbles and notes in my sketchbook, ideation is faster for me with pencil and paper.

As someone who feels most at home in the world when either learning a new skill or creating, I knew that my personal oasis would be a place of study and creative exploration. So I imagined a place that was part futuristic art school, part studio spaces, that would combine my love for renaissance sculpture, ancient roman architecture, massive libraries and a little bit of sci-fi...

Final. Blender + photoshop

Process video LINK

Let me share the final piece here as well for some context. There were several ways to explore the concept of anxiety in this piece. It's the struggle of today's world and the biggest enemy of our ideas. It is fed to us through social media and a chaotic world as mentioned in the challenge invitation. In the end, this work represented to me a very meditative piece. A mandala almost. The flower is the ide. Because, in the beginning, ideas are a very sensible thing. We must take care of it, and there are several enemies to our ideas that come from everywhere, especially within ourselves. But the idea is the muse, is perfect in our vision and we must follow. That's what we artists do in the end. 

From one of the first drafts (already with the blue colors, as I felt it was a very important choice since the begining), to the sketch, and the final result, with a more minimalistic approach.

So, how to express that feeling of urgency and intrusive thoughts that anxiety brings to us? I was trying... 

I came back to sketching. I wanted to represent several dimensions of thought here. We have peace with the sky, some water for flow. The red down there, very common sense, hell. And the blue is because that's also a state of mind and heart. So these are a few feelings that we visit in this piece. Everything pretty ugly at this point. 

At this stage, I was having fun. Bringing colors to simple renders helped me to expand and integrate a color pallet. 3D is a super powerful tool.  

I went to 3d to craft support material and better understand where I could go. 3D is the best tool to quickly sketch and materialize an idea. 

trying out different lighting scenarios until it fits