This is the art I have drawn for my D&D game on Roll20. I refer to it as the "lobby" art because I tend to use it as a kind of start screen, what the players are looking at right as the game starts.
The Player Characters are in the centre, with NPCs filling the white area. Originally, I had thought I would draw NPCs surrounding the party as those NPCs were introduced. However, I decided it would be more fun and interesting to instead draw sets of NPCs who inhabit different areas of the world on different layers, and then show them to the players as the players move through the world. This makes it less time intensive, as I'm drawing them all in one block instead of one-by-one and can draw them ahead of time. It also serves as a useful memory prompt, for both me and my players. Finally, I hope doing this will also allow players to see a character in the groups of NPCs that interest them, and can get them excited for who they're going to meet in an area.