Female Character - development

I decided to focus on a female design for my character, and I've been trying out different ways to present her, and have her age up and change as the story goes on. I chose to use small blank eyes for all these ideas, as to me they seem inquisitive without looking naive like some big Disney eyed characters often can. I'm using the eyes as a signifier for the aging of the character as the eyes will stay consistent on every page, as the rest of the design alters. As my book will be quite colourful with oranges and browns melding into blues and purples, I'll have to use colours that will compliment and contrast well with the environment such as lighter blues and pinks. When I started  storyboarding ideas I thought the character could be the sole source of colour to show her separation from the ageless world of nature, but now I see the relationship between nature and youth more entwined, as it is a cycle that people are always going through, and someone else will always experience these themes of growing up and changing, and hopefully that will make my book engaging and relatable.