Change in Plan for the Statue (Again!)

Right, well i know i decided upon the idea for the statue to be him holding the world, but.... it's not working. Because of our characters body shape and his afro its almost impossible to come up with a design which would work or won't take ages to model. If we want him to have over exagertaed muscles and stuff its just going to take to long to model. Originally I wanteds something along the lines of the hulk but with our guys face....


But the more I thought about it, the harder it was going to be, and the more time consuming it would become aswell. As well as this I kept thinking that a really realistic toned muscely body doesnt fit in with our unrealistic wacky simplistic designs so far. And to make things worse - fitting a globe in his hand without overlapping his afro is harder than you think!! Ive sketched so many ideas but its just not happening!





So i resorted to looking into some other simpler inspirations for the statue but each has its problem.....










Then I started thinking along the lines of famous heroic statues - and Joan of Arc came to mind.
It is the statue in which he is mounted on a horse, carrying a flag.



This would be perfect too boost our pony's ego as it gives the effect that he believes he is a strong, battling warrior! However obviously I would have to simplify a horse down, as this would be just as tedious and if not more time consuming than a muscley body.




I then came across these 3 images after looking for modern/simple/Joan or Arc statues!

I love the simplicity of the yellow horse, and it fits the style we're after. I also love the simple geometric shapes that make up the one on the far left which is actually situated in Paris. The pose of the horse in the picture with the man standing next to it is the pose I would put the horse in, as if its reering up. I believe I can model a simple funky looking horse quicker than a muscley body and globe. Plus then when I've finished the horse I can just duplicate the character model I'm going do this week, add a spear/flag and helmet to him, texture him in stone and sit him on the horse. Should be easier, I say should. As for the joke of the globe falling on him at the end of the scene, I still want to keep a similar joke to end my scene. It should be easy to make a section of the statue break off and crush him while posing. Guys if your reading let me know your thoughts on the new idea as I will probably start sketching up simple horses tonight...