One of the biggest challenges for me as a comic artist is balancing panel flow with my constant need to over express things like background detail. It's funny, I've been a comic book and graphic novel fan pretty much since I could read, but only after decades of reading did I notice how many panels just have a white background, even in comics that've been lauded for their artwork (ElfQuest is a brilliant example). It's all illusion, the establishing shot creating the environment for the characters to interact with, with other panels needing very little to remain within those confines. Some of my earlier attempts at this comic series got cluttered because I couldn't help but want to include background elements in every shot. After all, i didn't want to come off as lazy! But it's not always laziness, but composition that determines a space should remain relatively empty. Being able to judge that has been one of the more significant hurdles for me, especially considering I go for full color, where environmental lighting plays a big part in the composition.