[Showcase] Volcarona1996's Fakedex (WIP, Early Stage)

[Volcarona1996]

Hey guys!
I've been wanting to make my very own Pokemon game for a while now, but I just haven't been able to get around to doing so. What I have been doing, however, is making my own set of Fakemon to go into the game. Seeing as I have no skill whatsoever when it comes to sprite art, I decided to draw them by hand. I then used Photoshop to place the images in fake Pokedex entries. So far, I only have two evolutionary families, but more will be added as I make more Fakemon designs. Without further ado, here is my work:

Exhibit 01: Armadito and Armaduro

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As the names would suggest, this evolutionary line is based on armadillos, and serves as my region's basic normal-type, similar to Ratatta or Bidoof. Armadito evolves into Armaduro at level 18 and gains a steel type upon evolving, making it super weak to fighting types but also giving it a ton of resistances and an extra immunity (RIP Gengar). Both Pokemon can have Rattled or Shell Armor as their abilities. Unlike most Route 1 Rodents, Armadito and Armaduro will have Defense as their highest stat; they will also have an above-average speed.

Exhibit 02: Waspite and Abhornet

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Why hasn't there been a Bug/Dark type yet? It seems like such an obvious pairing! Anyway, Waspite and Abhornet are my answer to that! Waspite evolves with minimum friendship, which makes sense as wasps are spiteful little creatures. Their abilities are Adaptability and Unnerve, and they will have high Speed and Attack stats along with an extensive utility-based movepool.

So what do you guys think? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. I'll try to update the list as I get more Fakemon designed, but in the meantime why not leave a bit of constructive criticism on my work so far and let me know where I can improve.

 

[Cyberglass]

The concepts are okay, but I see two main things you could work on improving: one, the evolutions don't look different enough from their base form; both the evolutions here look like they could be the same as before, but in a different pose. Compare with something like Rattata to Raticate, or Meowth to Persian.

Two, Pokémon shouldn't just be an animal drawn in cartoon form. Take Rattata and Raticate, again. Rattata is clearly based on a rat, but if you put it next to a picture of one, they don't look much alike. Aside from the purple color, the tails are very different, and the head is shortened to emphasize its teeth. Similarly, Raticate has a more natural color and tail, but has an even shorter nose to make room for even bigger teeth and whiskers. For wasp-like Pokémon, look at Beedrill and Vespiquen: both are based on wasps, but have added features that reinforce an aspect of their design (as well as fewer legs, to fit a more humanoid pose). Beedrill, of course, has its drills, giving it stingers in a more convenient location to attack from. Vespiquen has its honeycomb dress, reinforcing its "queen" nature by giving it a swarm to order about and making it look more like a human queen.

I do like how you've abstracted Armadito's shell as the main feature; perhaps you could build on that for Armaduro and change it a bit to emphasize that it is now a metal shell. It's poor eyesight and sense of smell might also be a guide for how to differentiate the two; you can change the shape of the face to emphasize its nose and de-emphasize the eyes. As for Waspite/Abhornet, think of some feature you could incorporate to represent their dark typing.

That said, you're a lot better artist than I was when I started designing Fakemon. Keep working at it, and I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with!

 

[Volcarona1996]

The concepts are okay, but I see two main things you could work on improving: one, the evolutions don't look different enough from their base form; both the evolutions here look like they could be the same as before, but in a different pose. Compare with something like Rattata to Raticate, or Meowth to Persian.

Two, Pokémon shouldn't just be an animal drawn in cartoon form. Take Rattata and Raticate, again. Rattata is clearly based on a rat, but if you put it next to a picture of one, they don't look much alike. Aside from the purple color, the tails are very different, and the head is shortened to emphasize its teeth. Similarly, Raticate has a more natural color and tail, but has an even shorter nose to make room for even bigger teeth and whiskers. For wasp-like Pokémon, look at Beedrill and Vespiquen: both are based on wasps, but have added features that reinforce an aspect of their design (as well as fewer legs, to fit a more humanoid pose). Beedrill, of course, has its drills, giving it stingers in a more convenient location to attack from. Vespiquen has its honeycomb dress, reinforcing its "queen" nature by giving it a swarm to order about and making it look more like a human queen.

I do like how you've abstracted Armadito's shell as the main feature; perhaps you could build on that for Armaduro and change it a bit to emphasize that it is now a metal shell. It's poor eyesight and sense of smell might also be a guide for how to differentiate the two; you can change the shape of the face to emphasize its nose and de-emphasize the eyes. As for Waspite/Abhornet, think of some feature you could incorporate to represent their dark typing.

That said, you're a lot better artist than I was when I started designing Fakemon. Keep working at it, and I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Thanks for the feedback. I do feel that the final forms could do with some work. To be honest, art isn't really my strongest area, and I'm much better at everything else when it comes to designing Fakemon.

With Abhornet, I've had the concept there for a while, but I could never visualise it too well. I do agree that it just looks like a reposed Waspite with an extra set of mandibles. I was thinking of reshaping the yellow crest on the head and possibly adding knives to the arms. This would give it some distinguishing features, as well as make it look more dark-type in nature.

As for Armaduro, maybe a recolour in some areas would help differentiate it from Armadito to some extent. To emphasise the metal shell, perhaps working on the shading or tinting would do the trick.

Again, thanks for the help! :)