When I'm working on sketch or a illustrated work I would start off getting the basic shapes down of the character I'm working on (pose, position, perspective, etc) and then I would go for either a clear sketch or go straight into the final sketch depending on how developed my rough sketch is.
In the inking process (line art) I like to work with a smooth G-pen for the most part since I much prefer clean edges on my lines then rough ones with some pens also in digital art it makes things easier if I would want to color my line art based on the colors of my work.
when it comes to making backgrounds I have two ways to do so, Simple backgrounds involve adding a solid color that would not blend with the illustration I'm overlaying with, Detailed backgrounds is where I either paint he scene or line art, sometimes a mix of both if I ever wanna have anything stand out with my main illustration.