Witch Cats - Soft colors

I've been asking for a posters compagny to make an illustration with some cats.
I've started to make some sketches about some baby cute kitties kawai, and the boss told me that, they were cute, but they weren't "me".

I though about it a lot, and started to think about "how do I see cats ?"
I like a lot theses feline creatures, even if I'm not the biggest fan of them. I find them beautiful of course, attractive, mysterious, and more important I'm in admiration about their so simple and absolut elegance.

That's why I decided to make them looking the simpliest as possible, with the less of details, almost shadows, but I tried to capture a bit of their natural elegance.

I'm not totaly satisfied with the final result. It gave me a sort of too much textured and not enough simple in a way...
I haven't give them to the boss yet, I'm not sure I won't change them a bit.
What do you think folks ?

EDIT : I've done the second try. A more Black and white style, feel free to tell me wich one you prefer, it would help me a lot, thank you.

EDIT 2: Thank you for the advices *aerendyll ^____^ It look better this way.