Okay... so I've been caking a couple of years now, but an only just now getting really comfortable with my work. I've been asked to make cookies inspired by Eric Carle's Brown Bear Brown Bear.... I am NOT confident in my ability to replicate those animals to the point of recognition... I mean... sure i can make a yellow duck or a blue horse but i just feel like they would look like random animals and I want the cookies to be something recognizable... I've looked into edible images and I may have to resort to that, but do any of you have any ideas of how i could incorporate the book and NOT have to spend days putting little details on animals?

Why don't you do round cookies with edible images of the bear? Even if you don't have a machine, you can go to the grocery store and get several of them on the sheet. Or sometimes you can find them online.

One of the things that stands out to me from that book, is the look of the animals. They look as though they have been colored with a felt marker. Could you get that effect with your fondant? I think it's done by not kneading the color in completely-it looks varigated. Try and get the colors as close to the book as you can and use animal cookie cutters. Just a thought.
Kind of like the water in this picture:
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1223245