Character design ideas

After looking at my mood board, I decided to start playing around with ideas for character design, and personifying depression, as well as a character for hope/desire (the will to live). I started to sketch a few ideas down, thinking about who this can be done but not in a scary and off-putting way, but in a way that looks painful and sympathetic. I came up with an idea or two, and new I could take this further and explore a range of designs. However I first wanted to make sure I could capture the emotion needed, as the few pieces I did seemed to have facial emotion, but no real composition or camera angle to help emphasise the trauma. So I decided to do a quick photo-shoot, which acted as a quick way to get some framing ideas.