Soooo I'm running out of time! I've managed to color in the characters and the foreground, as well as add some detail on the buildings in the background. I still want to add characters in the middleground and work the values of the whole image! Almost there!

This is the first pass at base color for the characters on the foreground. need to keep pushing the paiting! Still have a lot to do!

I went ahead and finalized the lineart for the characters in the foreground. I will still make small changes and add details, but now I can also start color blocking and integrate them into the background.

This is the colored version of the previous image, where you could only see the values. I can tell I'll have to revisit some colors, but I'll work on the characters next and only after that, I'll come back to this.

I used a B&W adjustment layer as I was coloring the background to make sure I got the values right (ish).

So I went back to my drawing and redid the composition a bit so that I could fit in the storytelling with the characters I had envisioned. This is the rough draft of the positioning of the characters and the general vibe of what I'm going for.

So I spent a little time blocking different sections of this scene (still not complete), to try and get a clearer idea of what I'm going for. Next, I'll work on adding the characters and try out different color options.

After sketching a few ideas and deciding on a concept, I started working on the lineart. It was very challenging to create believable depth - and I still have to correct some perspective and composition mistakes. But I feel like I'm achieving the vibe I was going for.

After the initial exploration I had two concepts stuck in my mind:

- the first was a scene where a mother and her two daughters can share their experience with another family member in real time, through some kind of drone-projector object; in the background, we would see a vibrant eco-friendly city;

- the second was an evening-to-night scene in a skatepark, where we see friends hanging out (some are physically there and some are projected - as if they were skating in an exactly replica of this park, somewhere else in the world, and could share the experience with friends that are far away); I was thinking it would be fun to have cities designed like this, where people can interact with the architecture in a very physical, tangible and fun way, inciting us to lead more active lives.

I had also gathered some images: pictures I took from skating spots I visited and some color palette inspiration.

After brainstorming some concepts, I'm now experimenting with composition and storytelling. This is really the sketch phase to get ideas flowing. I usually hate these drawings but they are very important to understand what doesn't work - specially for someone like me, who still needs to try out things to get to the point where they start working.

These are the first sketches I made while thinking about the theme for this challenge. I'm trying to envision how the future will be and how it could be and then combining the two concepts.