Inspiration through misunderstanding

I saw some miniatures on the web that someone made for a variant setting for the Mordheim skirmish game. One of these miniatures caught my eye as a neat subject.

However, the first image I saw was a small thumbnail and I misunderstood what I was seeing. That turned out to be a good thing. I like what I thought I saw better.

I thought I was looking at a strange bipedal lionlike creature. And I got the idea of a friendlier such beast, with a kid riding on its head, grasping its mane.

So the above is my initial drawing for such a design. Here's the figure that inspired it.