Looks pretty crazy man. I like your expressions on the animals.

@mattramsey my inspirations and references are things like the old pulp covers, romance and suspense paper backs covers of the 60's and 70's. Big on Norman Rockwell and Frank Frazetta.

Very nice I like the image you have here. Great start.

@mattramsey I hear you on that.

I guess I was focusing on this being a suspenseful "mission impossible" moment.

Yes the face still needs work. His expression to me looks more like the yeti is aw stroke.
Faces and eyes in particular are one of my hurdles. I think I have to make that expression clear. Thank you for your observation.

On a broader note (sorry for this reply going so long, though its a great sounding board and I'm grateful for the feedback).

Yes I agree with you on this not fitting into a children's book.

*I'm thinking about creating this piece in a style that would be whimsical, to see what it might look like, as an exercise. *

My issue with the style is that I think it might look like it came out of the 50's and doesn't look modern. Maybe its just me.

Hi I did a color study of the piece.

I like your candy monster idea. I'm really digging your composition. It's very effective in showing the scale of the monster. I wounder, how sticky are those horns of his/her?

I like your cats. They have personality shown in their shapes and body behavior. I look forward to see what you do with them in your illustration.

Thanks Marsha.

Yes I see what you mean. I am trying to figure out how to make the image feel like it's living in 3d space and be readable.
When I exported the image, the deep black in the the top left corner turned into a solid dark tone. That's no excuse but I think that is effecting its clarity.
Having awesome folks like yourself telling me what they see and how they read an image is fantastic and helping me grow as an artist. Thanks for your participation.

Hi I reworked the tones trying to create a sense of distance.