Mum inspiration and development

I'm mentally destroying myself over character development in my wannabe comic project. So, here's another tedious demonstration of my procrastination due to intense anxiety over my ability as an artist: a post about a character you don't know or care about! (Woohoo!)

My project is called Mum because that's the name of my main character, and I haven't ever been able to come up with anything that sounded better. She's not anyone's mom, but she was discovered in a rich woman's flower bed (at least in the comic). In the case of how I eventually ended up with the character I'm now painfully trying to write/fucking give birth to it seems, there were a lot of different inspirational moments. Below is some kind of photocollage diagram I arranged for my own miserable amusement.

The first thing that made her pop into my mind was reading Hellboy and BPRD for the first time. And the songs "Black Market Baby" and "First Kiss" by Tom Waits. Oh, and the Millenium episode "Beware of the Dog". Around that time I dogsat for my mechanic, whose wife had the most badass mum garden I've ever seen, hence the origin idea/name. Of course, like any artist stereotype, I was an angsty teenager, and her characterization really developed from a period of intense apathy I went through where I thought I might be incapable of experiencing things like grief normally. Basically, she's a bitchy, witchy, southern Spock, I think. I'm currently struggling with making her sympathetic, since at the moment I hate her guts (probably because she came from me and I'm just the worst).

Daniel Danger, The Nizu, flowers, strong noses, Mike Mignola, feral houses, John Bauer, greek statues, and Millenium (jesus christ, Kim!)

In addition to trying to write interesting things, I'm struggling to exercise more consistency/redeveloping a style in my drawing after years off regular drawing for fun. (Thanks, art school.) Below are sketches/drawings of Mum I've done through the years, starting with the image on the right from 2010 (before I really figured out how to paint and all the rest). Yeah, 3/4 angle, you're my default best friend and I am way, way too lazy. This is more for my own reference (and so I can publicly shame myself?).

And here's the last (unfinished) panel I've drawn featuring her (which is actually the fifth page of the comic). Still trying to figure out my process...

do you look like the person I drew in the last four pages? IS THIS GOOD???

If you enjoyed this (ha) then good, because I'll probably try to force it on you again.