This is sorted by evolution line in order, but some of them have multiple paragraphs, so to help pick things out, all of the names are in bold! Look for bold if you need to skim through or find a specific line!
Since I'm responding to the starters first, I just wanted to say: it's really cool that each of your starters gets its starter type weakness as a secondary type in its final form!! It's also great that you can see signs of the eventual types early on, so it's not an awkward change out of nowhere; you did a great job with it!
The Jalapup line is definitely my favorite of your starters!!!
First of all, Jalapup is just really cute! I love the puppy-like look (as suggested by the name), even though the line as a whole brings lizards more to mind as the ears turn to frills and the tails get longer. The stem even kind of looks like a leash!
I really like that the colors reflect the stages of maturity of a habanero pepper! They start out green, color with age and end up orange to red, right? In particular, I also love that all three stages have all three colors on them (Jalapup is a stretch there, but the eyes are red-orange) and it was only a shift in dominance rather than a total palette change. That’s not at all a necessity and I’m all for total palette changes in many cases, but I think this line in particular profits from that cohesive color choice!
Another thing: middle-stage starters pretty much always have a certain awkwardness about them. I love that Habanaga looks like it’s recoiling, shocked or just baffled in its pose here! The eyes carry that the most expressively.
All in all, I also really love the cohesive design elements between every stage bringing them together (black collar and claws, stem, frills that progressively get more numerous) while each one still looks completely different in body style and coloration! The line really fits together and I love it!
The Warmoset line is also really good!!
The one problem I have is with Warmoset alone - its face. It’s hard to say why, but its face design on the bottom right corner where you have art of the starters looks very out-of-place on a Pokémon, even if it is a monkey and it’s supposed to be at least somewhat humanoid; Warmoset’s is just humanoid to an awkward extent. Pretty much no Pokémon has a human nose, even those that are otherwise humanoid like Jynx, Mr. Mime, Infernape, Passimian and Oranguru, to give some examples of both actual humans and humanoid monkeys. While Warmoset’s nose still is obviously cartoonish, its face overall just definitely brings “cartoon human” to mind (like any of the Trainers in-game, basically; cartoonish doesn’t mean not human when all of the Trainers are cartoonish!) and doesn’t feel far enough from that to be a human, and the nose is definitely to blame for that in my opinion. That aside, Warmoset’s sprite also looks like it must be a little too small to work, because comparing its sprite to its art gives a much bigger difference (still especially in the facial area) than the other two to their art, so it seems like it must be being made to sacrifice some detail there.
For all of that, though, there’s also plenty of good, especially for the two evolutions!! I, again, love how Steamur starts dropping signs of an eventual Water type without being so intrusive that it looks like it should already be Water-type, and then Sarusauna fully embraces Water in its design and becomes super bubbly and laid back.
I also love your color choices! The red-oranges of Steamur go really nicely together, and I love that even working with a very small range of hues throughout, you used saturation and luminosity to clearly set off the three different colors (bar the fire) for its design. And then becoming pinker for Sarusauna looks really nice and bridges the fire and water together, not to mention how pretty it looks with the light blue on the tail! In addition, there’s a really satisfying direction in the hues going from Warmoset’s yellow to Steamur’s red-orange and then to Sarusauna’s magenta; they align in that order as colors and it makes them fit together really smoothly!
Overall, aside from my issues with Warmoset’s face, the whole line is really awesome!! You did another really good job with these!!
The Manatot line is the only starter line of yours I don’t really like; they’re really cute, but it doesn’t really seem like they go anywhere design-wise.
I kind of can’t really figure out where the Grass subtype comes in. It seems from your DA that it comes from Sirenatee eating marine plants, but what about that makes it more Grass than the others? Plenty of herbivorous Pokémon aren’t Grass, and all Pokémon eat Berries, which are also plants. I think you’d just need something more than eating habits to justify being Grass-type for Sirenatee - if anything, in a more recent Generation (obviously not the case for Fire Red since it doesn’t exist yet), I would say that that qualifies them more for Sap Sipper than for a Grass addition.
In addition, you change their colorations throughout the line, which is appreciated, but then most of the non-color changes are just proportional and don’t really expand very much on any one feature - if you ignore their colors, they have the same “pigtails,” the same forearm fins, the same legs and the same tail, just at different proportional sizes. Manatot is a little different in not having tusks, but then once Muskatee has them, they appear to just get bigger on Sirenatee.
That said, I really love the concept behind the line after reading the flavor you wrote on your DA! I think you did a good job of representing it in their designs overall - Manatot does look like it would drift around and then forget where it is, Muskatee perfectly captures a plucky adventurer who wants to explore, and Sirenatee definitely seems like it wants to eat and sleep - but it’s just the rather lacking differentiation between the stages that I think could use some work.
The Rollarva line is really cleverly designed! I love that it went from a roly-poly to looking like a motorcyclist while maintaining important design elements like the goggles, the shell shape and the same arms all the way throughout.
A small thing I really like is that you changed the green (teal?) on Rollarva to a different shade of cyan when it evolved! Little color shifts like that make the evolution that much more interesting.
I don’t have a ton to say about this, but that’s just because I have no suggestions to make! Can’t really give any ideas when I already think it’s perfect, haha. A+ line!!
The Quikwail line is also really well-done! Basically, their three stages pull off what I would consider the three most important aspects of an evolution really well!
First, change in proportions: you have Quikwail small and round, then Swiftrot becomes graceful and longer, and Torquey becomes round and bulky again but with individual traits at the opposite extreme of Quikwail (tail fanning out, legs less prominent, body more prominent, crest less prominent, wings more prominent, and so on) so that it doesn’t just look bigger. None of your stages have even scaling there, so they all end up as different shapes. This is really good!
Second, change in color focus: it’s fantastic that, even with more or less the same color scheme, each of your stages puts the spotlight on a different color (Swiftrot adds white for contrast and shifts the focus away from the darkest brown, and then without adding any new color, Torquey puts more focus on the blue than previous stages). Lines like this are a lot more interesting, especially when you’re looking at each stage side by side!
And third, even beyond this, they just make use of different shapes! Things don’t just get bigger or smaller or added in or put on top; they get naturally replaced, like how Quikwail’s tail gets longer as Swiftrot and then widens into a fan for Torquey! Similarly, the crest is different in every stage even without just getting more elaborate/detailed. Things like that make the line feel like it’s evolving; you did a really good job with them overall!!
Honestly, a lot of your evolutions are well-executed like this, but this one stood out the most, so I wanted to go into it here. Basically... This line is amazing!!
The Alparka line is adorable! I love its puffy design; it’s clearly well-defined and not just an arbitrary arrangement of fluff, but it’s also super soft-looking!
The main issue I see with Alparka is more with the sprite itself than with the design, but you seem to be using really light colors for most of it, including its outline - it makes it pretty hard to look at, and makes the transition to a black outline stand out a bit more than I think you want. Also, I would try to differentiate the color of the face and legs from the color of the fluff, because I think they might be different colors (it’s less saturated and appears to be lighter), but the outline colors between them are the same and they’re just so similar that it’s hard to distinguish. Basically, the coloring of the sprite makes it a little harder to read, which is unfortunate on something that’s so well-designed in shape!
Another thing that’s bothering me just a little is Woollama’s eye, which I think looks a little bit reptilian. I always find it hard to sprite eyes, so I dunno how much help I could be with resolving this, but my main suggestions, would be to make the eyes just a pixel taller (they seem narrowed, which makes Woollama’s smile look more mean-spirited, like it’s smirking - I’m not sure if that was the intent, but I’m guessing not because it seems like such a friendly Pokémon otherwise!), and I wonder if it might help if you made the bottom not outlined with black? I think that having so much black on both the top and the bottom might be contributing to why it looks off to me, particularly since the pupil is also black.
But anyway, as far as I can tell, those are more sprite issues, not design issues - I honestly can’t say there’s anything I don’t like about the design itself, which is awesome!! Alparka is among my favorites of these designs!
Also, I noticed that, on your DA, you said you might these two alternately-colored forms based on kinds of coffee? HOLY HECK, THAT IS THE CUTEST THING. I AM TOTALLY IN FAVOR!!
The Kiddydid line is really cute overall!!
First of all, I looked into it and determined okay, fine - actually, Google's rather impressive did you mean determined that all three are based on katydids (grasshoppers) and the really funny visual pun of katydid sounding like kitty and cat, haha.
I really like the subtlety with which you integrated this! They're clearly grasshoppers and anyone will get that much, and then you sort of see that their faces (and names) make you think of cats. My reaction, at least, was "oh... huh, I wonder where that came from?" but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the design (if anything, it just gave me a laugh and made them cuter). It wasn't a confused "wait, what?" before I got it - it just seemed like an amusing “everything is better with cats!” (true statement by the way) - and then it gave a satisfying "Aha! That's clever!" when I did understand, so I think you did a good job with the concept! Incidentally, Kittydood is my favorite! It's just so whimsical and happy-looking! >w<
However, my one issue: it might just be because of the angle of the front sprites, but it's a little too hard to distinguish Kittydood and Cattydad other than their poses and heads. Their leaf capes seem to be pretty similar and they have near-identical colors and distributions of those colors, and while Cattydad has some kind of yellow spikes instead of a third pair of legs like Kittydood, they're the same color and end up not really seeming like much of a difference from Kittydood. I don't know how opposed you would be to this, but it could be worth considering merging Cattydad with Kittydood and making it a two-stage line? If not, I think you should at least make them more noticeably different - in particular, I would give Cattydad a change in color (even keeping the green leaf/body, but changing the yellow and the light blue to something else?) so that there's a very easy-to-spot difference.
The Junkrab line is really well done! I’m not a HUGE fan of this vibrant a purple-and-green color scheme, but I think it actually does work here how you’ve used it and it makes sense since they, especially in combination, are generally supposed to represent poison and hazardous waste.
I think you did another really good job with this evolutionary progression - you altered the color scheme just enough between them, altered their proportions significantly enough to make a difference, and made plenty of differences in actual shapes and new design elements, like Moustrache’s moustache (FANTASTIC NAME BY THE WAY) and that you replaced Junkrab’s shell with a trash bin on Moustrache!
Incidentally, is Junkrab’s shell the top half of a Poké Ball? I think I spy a mimic-based Fakemon! I really like that even while doing that, you didn’t make it the only part of the design with focus like Voltorb and Foongus - it makes sense that it would use a discarded item as a shell, but that’s a very small part of its design once you’ve actually interacted with it and revealed it as a Junkrab!
Overall, this is a really neat concept and you pulled it off really well!! : D
The Lucikid line is another really adorable line!
The only real issue I think I need to bring up is the same issue as Alparka - the shading just makes the sprites a little hard to look at. In particular, I would say you should make the colored outlines darker, especially on the yellow (Lucikid has too great a contrast between the yellow lines and the black, and one part of Lucigon's head has a yellow outline right in front of the shadow of a pink wing and it seems like the outline there is lighter than the shadow, which is usually not something you want), and maybe reduce the contrast between the non-line shades of yellow on Lucigon's sprite!
One smaller thing is that Lucikid's brow (is that the right word for it? not an eyebrow, but, like, the wrinkle in that spot...? does anyone know what that's called OTL) is the same black as its eye, so it's a little confusing to look at. I would suggest making that a colored or partially colored line like on Lucigon so that it's more distinct from the actual eye!
Design-wise, I don't have too much to say, but I really love them! They just exude jubilance, and I love how Lucikid looks like a little chick (it kinda reminds me of a penguin, though it's obviously not one XP) while Lucigon grows into the dragon look while still having super cheerful colors and expression! I just want to hug them, hehe.
The Snackoon line is really well-designed and I just love their eyes!! (Somehow, Snackoon just looks like it's being sly, saying "a-aah, did I get caught?" and giving puppy-dog eyes all at once!)
However, and it might just be the pose (I do see that you changed the arrangement of the spiky yellow fur on the back, but just because they're both front sprites and you can't see the whole thing, it doesn't stand out as such a big change except when seeing them side by side, I guess!), but the distinction between them seems a little small for my tastes. I definitely see the use of more of the pink around Pulsum and that its hands were made yellow, but especially with a type change, I feel like there should be just a bit more obvious a change between them?
One thing that I think might work is simply changing the yellow on either one of them to another color - either making it something duller for Snackoon (if you want a similar hue, it could just be a sandy color) or going from yellow to electric blue on Pulsum. Something to make Pulsum seem distinctly more Electric-type than Snackoon would definitely benefit the line! Admittedly, I'm all for less-obvious types and Pokémon being designed independently of their types in most cases; it's really just that when there's a type change in evolution, it's usually accompanied by a very obvious shift. Like Charizard and Butterfree gaining wings to become Flying, Torterra clearly having an entire environment with soil and rocks on its shell that practically screams Ground compared to its pre-evolutions being distinctly limited to plants, and so on.
The Frongus line is one I'm not such a huge fan of, but I think it works for what you're going for, and it's probably intended to be gross-looking, given that it's Poison-type and has a mouth that puts Bruxish to shame!
The only actual issue I see with it is Blightoad's chin, because it's really hard to read with all of the lines being black and the arm behind it being the same color - it's clearly a distinct shape, and seems to have three lumps hanging off of it that would make its face unique but are just too easy to overlook as it is now! I would suggest adding some kind of color division there or making the chin purple like the spots.
The Pangoling line is actually one of my favorites!! Overall, I really like their designs!!
First, on Pangoling itself, I just have the minor observation that its leftmost foot (viewer's left, Pangoling's front right) doesn't show both toes. It's not super important and I trust it looks fine when it's not super zoomed-in as I have it, but since it's currently only two shades and outlined all in black, it draws too much attention for me not to notice the missing toe. The rightmost foot (viewer's right, Pangoling's back right) is clearly facing away, so it makes sense at the angle not to see the toes, but I think the leftmost is seen clearly enough and is big enough that the extra detail could be afforded!
I also think that Pangoliath's eyebrows could be improved, but I definitely like the cartoonish expression they give it, so you should absolutely keep them! I would just say to make them more even in width - for example, you have the one on the viewer's right start thin black, then thicken to a block of black, then go to thin brown and back to a thick block of brown. Perhaps the thicker brown should be on the middle rather than the end? (Also, on the viewer's left side, the brown and the black appear to be separate, so I'm not sure if the brown is even actually part of the eyebrow - if not, I would say to resprite the one on the viewer's sprite to make them more distinct and maybe help to clarify what the brown is!)
You once again did a really good job of distinguishing the two stages from one another here, and I really like these two!! Eyebrows and toes aside, these are some of the best designs in your Fakedex! : D
Boopsy is really cute!! I don’t have very much to say about it - you mentioned it has an evolution, so it might be more logical to judge them together than to make assumptions about Boopsy. Still, a really small thing: even though it’s only holding the swirly orb (I think), I love that it also has some of that green on its cheeks; it’s a small detail, but it definitely helps to make them fit together rather than just looking like separate things!
The Bloomstone line is… kind of hard to read, I’m afraid. I’m not really sure what some parts of the sprites are; it’s probably more the small size’s fault than yours, but I think it might be worth cutting down on some of the detail, and maybe adding a grey color to separate from the brown that’s already there and make it easier to distinguish some of the overlapping shapes!
First, I can’t quite figure out what Bloomstone’s arms are or what that square is; is that a hand attached to its arm? I’m not sure because it looks like only one of the arms has it, and it looks like the arm continues further back behind it, unless that’s a finger. But if it’s separate from the arms, why is it in front of them…?
Doomstone (does it evolve from Gloomstone or is it a counterpart? it’s an evolution, right?) is probably the only one of the line that I don’t actually like; I think it’s a little bit busy with too many colors that don’t really go well together (the green on dull brown works really nicely, but then the vibrant red tongue, pink petals, yellow-and-green eyes, yellow flower-center and black arms and eyebrows are all just a little too much and don’t mesh well). I think it might be worth dulling the red on the tongue and legs significantly now that it’s not a focus like on the flowers, and since the flower itself is wilted, it could also use this dull red without a problem or could become black like the arms and eyebrows; also, I would cut the yellow entirely, because it’s extremely vibrant and grating on the eyes but only actually appears in three small parts of the sprite. Last thing on this, but I would maybe not have so many shades on the tongue and would refrain from using black on the rings around it even if there is some on the outline.
But on the flip side of things, I really like Bloomstone’s and Gloomstone’s faces! They’re both so expressive and really distinct, and you sprited them both really well so everything can be made out clearly! The eyebrows and then Gloomstone’s facial hair are amazing and probably my favorite part of the design; you really took something expected (plant growth and flowers on a tombstone) and used it really cleverly and unexpectedly as hair to anthropomorphize them! I also just love the comical look as such a stark contrast to what you’d expect from a tombstone.
The Blostoyse line... HOLY HECK I AM IN LOVE. I LOVE THIS. IT'S SO CUTE. THOSE EYES THOUGH... AAAAA. I'M. I HAVE DIED OF THE CUTE. ... Ahem. Sorry.
Blostoyse is somewhere between Mimikyu in execution (Ghost-type possessing an object that resembles another Pokémon, earning love) and Shuppet/Banette in concept ("lost toy" is in the name, so I'm guessing it's more like possessed item than intended disguise), right? I really like that it uses a toy of a shelled Pokémon (Blastoise) as a body and then looks like it's hiding/withdrawn in a shell; it really captures a shy nature that just makes you want to hug it and cuddle it and love it forever. <3
Meanwhile, Toymoil! I know you didn't show a finished sprite for it, but it was in the video so I have the gist of its design minus the color, and I really like it, too!! Like Blostoyse reminds me of Mimikyu, Toymoil brings to mind some of the best fan evolutions of Mimikyu; I love how it's still shy and you can't see it, but you have those big eyes and the arms coming out so there's an obvious change in body type, and the way the shell broke open and Toymoil is coming out of a different part of the body is an excellent way to differentiate the two.
Another thing I really like: there easily could have been a negligible change, but you actually completely avoided that! By rotating the shell and making it encompass less of what's visible of the sprite even though it's still the same shell, you shifted the focus more onto the ghost and made it seem more important or eye-catching to viewers.
My one suggestion here: it's not colored yet, so you might have already been planning this, but could I suggest for Toymoil that the tips of its arms should be a different color (like Mega Gengar and how its arms get pinker as they transition to its hands)? That might make it more visually interesting since the pitch black encompasses so much more of the sprite for Toymoil than Blostoyse, and it would also help to make the stages different colors since the shell itself will be the same.
All in all, this is a really well-done line and I love it!!
The Sizzly line is another of my favorites of your designs, really! I looked in your other videos to find Embear after you mentioned that you had it sketched (well, also, I just wanted to look at your videos and happened upon where you drew Sizzly), so I’ll review them together here!
I REALLY love Sizzly’s smugness. It comes off as so confident and intelligent, but somehow with just the right balance of wildness, too - like it knows what it’s doing and it knows you’re going to be totally wrecked. And it totally stays self-assured after evolving, but somehow my favorite part is how much more so Sizzly is than Embear - Embear is a collected “yeah, I got this,” but Sizzly has the face of “YEEEAAAH I AM GOING TO ENJOY THIS.” It’s really quite something, haha.
Embear gets bulkier and has a very different body style, and even while building on the same concepts as Sizzly, it has completely different armor, completely different metal paws and an awesome mane where Sizzly had a tuft of fur; like the Quikwail line, this is one of your best evolutions and a prime example to aspiring Fakemon designers! Really good job with this! (I’m a little unsure on one eye having a scar on Embear, though - it just comes off as a bit too cliche, haha.)
The only negative I have for them is that I would never have guessed that Sizzly was a bear without seeing Embear. But then again, I’ve been struggling with a cub Fakemon of my own and have concluded that I am not the one to give advice on how to make a bear cub look like a bear. XP So never mind this anyway! Independently of being immediately recognized as a bear, it’s really well-designed and I’m not sure how you could make it look ursine without messing with the awesome aesthetic you have here, so I would say to just keep it as is, haha.
