A fun study of a really cute scene. If you guys ever watch my process videos involving both backgrounds and characters, you'll notice that I tend to work from the back to the front. Meaning whatever is farthest from the camera is what I try to address first. There's a couple of reasons for this.
1. It helps me organize my layers really effortlessly. If I need to search for a layer, I know where it'll be based on what objects/subjects are involved in that layer. For example, I know the subject and lighting layers will be closer to the top of the list, whereas the blue colour for the sky will be at the very bottom. It helps me avoid unnecessary confusion.
2. I love having a sense of the colours and atmosphere of the background before I fully render my character. The reason for this is characters are affected by the colours and lighting in their environment. Being able to see the background colours helps me understand how I should go about rendering them.