As you have said I would go for a style between those two, with the simplicity of the one below but with the perspective of the one above. As an advice you should use less colours and better palettes (you can find pretty good tutorials on creating palettes out there). Also your use of the outline in the one above is ilogical, taken that the light comes from a frontal perspective why the outline above the arms is darker than the outline under them?
I will try to submit some example or some personal takes on this character this week.