To me it looks like he's slanting away from the viewer. He looks rather flat as well. I think that the main reason he looks like he's so thin is because the back legs are too close to the front legs. The 2-3 pixel gap would suggest that he is in fact 2-3 pixels thick. moving the back legs further up might also address some of the slanting issues.
The head suggests a different angle than the antlers do too. I believe that elk antlers grow outward from the head and not directly behind it.
Uhm...I thought it'd be quicker to just do an edit in the end. I may have butchered the head a little bit, because I didn't reference any elk images, but I have a fond visualization of an elk head that resides in my great uncle's living room.
Anyways, I hope this fragmented C and C helps.
