Crowds

Hi Chaps,

I've been recently working on a book that requires some crowd scenes, and groups of people. Sometimes I do find I can be tempted to let the figures in a crowd or group become a bit non-specific, characterless, loose, drones, who all look the same, due to the repetition of filling the space.
Rather than making them all being individual characters.
And the difference is the enjoyment in doing the illustration.
Whatever the picture, if I can find something in it that fires my interest/inspiration, and gets me engrossed, then I enjoy doing it more, and therefore it comes out better.
So, my first task when doing an illustration, along with working out the composition, is finding the route to being inspired.
So with these recent crowd scenes I'm working on, I blocked out the composition reasonably quickly, and then had a nice relax with my sketchbook and enjoyed myself trying to think up different characters to populate the crowds.
And here they are.

Hamble, Felix, Elsie, Ernie

Well, I was sketching out characters, and these two popped up.

Hamble and Felix Hamshanks.

Hamble dines exclusively on strips of salted beef and lemon juice, her husband Felix, subsists on whisky and dried prunes.

And here they are.

I think if I need a couple of baddies, these two might be it.

They make a dastardly living stealing pet rabbits, making them into slippers, and selling them to rich clients.

The dastardly cads.

But....

Would it be ok to feature them in an illustration aimed at early readers, to go in my portfolio, or are they a bit too creepy, OR, would it be a good thing to vary my portfolio with them even if they are a bit creepy?

Do you think they would they be suitable for children's books as they are, or should I make them a bit more charicatured and fun?

Any thoughts would be welcomed :)

Below are two slightly more friendly looking old characters, this is Elsie Hotterpoppercot, and Ernie Bramble.

Elsie makes the scones, Ernie makes the jam.