Here are the backgrounds I have been working on. I enjoyed getting fully involved with these as it allowed me to release my 'inner artist' and get funky with paints and pastels etc..! I have included some of the rough thumbnail sketches that I based my final backgrounds on.
These 3 ideas were totally my imagination:

My kitchen and a Ratatouille design:

The lower 2 thumbnails were developed from a photo of Gylly beach:

I developed these thumbnails into my
1st final layout background:

Some further thumbnail ideas - The bottom one was inspired from a hardware shop I used to work at:

I developed the thumbnail idea into my
2nd final background - heres the line drawing:

and in colour - using pastels, pencils and a pen :

Some more thumbnail ideas - the first one is based on a photo I took of a creepy atmospheric corridor, the second is my room :

A drawing of inside the media centre:

Here, the first drawing is from a photo from inside a coffee shop, the 2nd is from my imagination and the third is from my memory of Brighton beach:

These three are all from photos I took whilst travelling in China and Hong Kong:

I developed the last one into my
3rd final background, here is the line drawing:

and in colour - using gouache, pastels, pencils, highlighters and pens:

Here is the photo that I used as reference:

As you can see I got really absorbed into creating these, especially the last one. It was great fun!