chasing rabbit trails

... Firstly, having a strong focal point like a mountain, large window, or even just a path draws the eye and gives a goal. For the background of character art, it would probably be best to mute things a bit more, but it's still an important element of visual interest and environmental storytelling - the heroes are heading towards the distant spire on the mountain, and so it looms in the background, becoming the central point more and more the closer they get.

-Horizontal lines, besides those used in actual buildings, seem to be uncommon. Diagonal and especially fully vertical lines are much more widespread, and could prove a good way to emphasize the focal points of a drawing. Definitely as a good way to create composition and flow, particularly framing by mirroring elements. Could also help serve a theme/mood, like towering trees walling either side of an image for a claustrophobic feeling despite being in open air. As well, the actual horizon line of landscapes tends to be very high in most instances, which makes sense unless there's something in the actual sky to pay attention to, thus it being better suited for showing city skylines or shelves full of nick knacks in homes.

-I really struggle with feeling like my backgrounds are boring and dead, so I wanted to focus in on ways to try and remedy that. I think in a lot of pictures and even my own work I've noticed the level of variety and randomness to that variety is really important; adding grain to wood, patches of rocks moss and fungus and grass in a forest, and trash and signs in a city does a lot for what's otherwise a pretty basic looking picture. Texture for those, and to make things look worn and used, makes it feel more like the world is lived in. Taking the time to really look at pictures from different places, especially cities, also really helped get a better sense of how to convey culture in a background rather than just put stuff in because it looks nice and feels like there should be this or that in this area. I've heard the advice of treating environments like characters, but this really helped for it to sink in.