Hey! Thank you for showing us your work! The portrait you have done is really cute! I think you have done great work on it! Perhaps just flip your canvas horizontally once in a while as you work to make sure it is not wonky!
As for the original character design - you have made it very hard for yourself with all that drapery and lighting! For something like a character design, the most important thing is communicating the actual design, and making it backlit distracts from the clarity of communicating your design. Perhaps just focus on more neutral lighting to make it a bit easier for yourself, and add dramatic lighting like that for full illustrations other than character designs 
