Ach's Fakedex

So I'm fairly new to spriting. I've started out by making splices, now practically all of my sprites are scratches. But the thing is, I've never showed them to anyone, which means that I've never gotten any criticism. And I can't really judge my own work, since I can't be sure if I'm overestimating or being too harsh on myself. At the moment, they seem to be... well, bad. Any tips on how to improve?
So here are nine sprites, the starters and their evolved forms:

If anyone needs their etymologies:
The Alligator Pokemon - Gatoakr (Alligator+Oak)
The Crocodile Pokemon - Wilowdile (Willow + Crocodile)
The Drake Pokemon - Yggdrakil (Yggdrasil + Drake + Kill) (Part Dragon)
The Rat Pokemon - Pyrat (Pyro + Rat)
The Marsupial Pokemon - Flamsupial (Flame + Marsupial)
The Heroic Pokemon - Siegfire (Siegfried + Fire) (Part Psychic)
The Squid Pokemon - Squiglet (Squid + -let)
The Octopus Pokemon - Octhanat (Octopus + Thanathos) (Part Dark)
The Abomination Pokemon - Cthulloid (Cthulhu + -oid) (Part Dark)

Gatoakr - Head looks like it couldn't even begin to get supported by it's body.

Some of these sprites look completely squished. But either way you've done a good effort.

So I've done some changes. Gatoakr's head is not gravity-defying anymore and I've focused on changing a few outlines to make them a little more clearer. Thanks for the criticism, but could you explain which mons seem to be squished? And could you elaborate on how I should fix it? Thanks again!

Hey I think is is alright :) Ovthanat looks a bit fishy and the lines don't look too smooth except for Pyrat maybe.

These aren't really fakemon, and kudos to you if you know what they are. All of them were scratched, but I did take a look at the official art and their GBC sprites for reference. I've decided to sprite them as a way to improve my scratching.
Comments? Criticism?

Ach7AC said:

These aren't really fakemon, and kudos to you if you know what they are. All of them were scratched, but I did take a look at the official art and their GBC sprites for reference. I've decided to sprite them as a way to improve my scratching.
Comments? Criticism?

Click to expand...

I believe that these are from the Pokemon Diamond bootleg game. These aren't bad, but I'd suggest using better shading techniques. I'd suggest studying the official Pokemon sprites for shading tips. Also, your outlining could use some work.

Elgyem said:

I believe that these are from the Pokemon Diamond bootleg game. These aren't bad, but I'd suggest using better shading techniques. I'd suggest studying the official Pokemon sprites for shading tips. Also, your outlining could use some work.

Click to expand...

Yep, they're Denjuu. And yeah, I've been having the most problems with the outlines, see Fungus/Fangs for instance. Which is my main focus at the moment. I also notice that I seemed to have attempted to pillow-shade these sprites. I'll try scratching out a few more sprites without these flaws.

EDIT:
This one's more of a comparison. The Fakemon here is Siccarkrow, which is supposed to be an evolution of Banette, a counterpart of Dusknoir, if you will. The left one was made when I began spriting from scratch, which is of course, hideous. The one in the right is more recent and polished. I feel like I need to improve the shading on the hat. Thoughts?

Ach7AC said:

Yep, they're Denjuu. And yeah, I've been having the most problems with the outlines, see Fungus/Fangs for instance. Which is my main focus at the moment. I also notice that I seemed to have attempted to pillow-shade these sprites. I'll try scratching out a few more sprites without these flaws.

EDIT:
This one's more of a comparison. The Fakemon here is Siccarkrow, which is supposed to be an evolution of Banette, a counterpart of Dusknoir, if you will. The left one was made when I began spriting from scratch, which is of course, hideous. The one in the right is more recent and polished. I feel like I need to improve the shading on the hat. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I think it still needs a bit smoother lines - especially on the hat. They all do look a bit squished, too, you might want to make them smaller.

Telefang's monsters are great!

For your scratchs however, I find them too twisted but I'm sure you can do something better!

are good sprites
the only thing that fails is a bit light source
but also this great