So in order to make the scene more interesting, I decided to go beyond just the Lotus flower, and include more in my subject of matters. I'm using Yang Mingyi's painting as my main references because I love the way he render light and shadow in his painting:
Yang's Paintings
I did some test shading and lighting on a simply building model before. There are still a lot to add right now but it seems to be a pretty good start : )
And here is the layout thumbnail I painted together with a rough 3D layout scene.
painted thumbnail
3D layout