Red Riding Hood and Character Design Advice.

Just got through my first week of school! And I'm taking Digital Painting this semester! Right now, we're supposed to redesign a character from "Little Red Riding Hood," "Peter and the Wolf," or "Wizard of Oz." I settled on Red and came up with about a dozen different ideas and redesigns for her, but this was my favorite design-wise. I placed Red in a Victorian haunted mansion, where some of the haunts may not be as happy as the ones in Disney's Haunted Mansion... it was weird for me to even come up with this idea since ghost stories tend to freak me out (except the Haunted Mansion), but I liked the concept, and it's good to explore things that are different, but not squeamishly uncomfortable. This is my final design:

This Red was my first pass on the character, and I really liked her frazzled, haunted look. Rather like a Tim Burton style, which is also weird since I'm not really into his genre of movies. I appreciate them for their aesthetic qualities, but I tend to lean away from the creepy. But this pass on Red was really fun, so I decided to go with it.

A note on character design from my teacher regarding this pass and any kind of character design: You always want to add contrasting elements to your character and different layers of their personality. My first Red, for example, though interesting to look at, doesn't say too much about the character. She just looks a scared, and how do you root for someone who's always scared? Whereas in the second design, I changed her expression to be (hopefully) one that's not so scared, but maybe a bit curious and plucky. The final Red looks like she'd be more inclined to go around a creepy corner, though she's obviously still a little haunted-looking, but the first Red looks like she just might stay in her room, too afraid to venture into the unknown. Also, I tried to use contrasting curving and angled lines in the second design of Red to give her a disjointed look that matches her personality, but the first design has a lot of curves and looks a bit too safe for a haunted kind of story. I still want to mess with the design (dynamic pose plz), but I'm liking the way it's going!
This sketch just came to me one night.I've got an idea of what I think it is, and I'm sure you do, too ;) The biggest thing I wanted from the sketch was the feeling of reunion, and I hope I achieved it!

... gosh, I write a lot on here. Kudos to anyone who reads an entire post. At breakfast. With cereal and hot cocoa. Instead of the newspaper. I hope that what I have to say is informative and helpful!