So after about 12/13 years, my starters have finally gotten a remake! I also threw in my friend Rexander134's fakemon starters, as I've been meaning to redesign them for him anyways, and I needed an additional set of starters since the original drawings were two fakemon to a page, like this. His starter set are the last four in each row, so the centaur, sphinx/manticore, and naga. Unfortunately I don't have links to the originals, as I'm not sure he's uploaded them yet, and I haven't been able to find them
I cannot emphasize how many drafts went into remaking these things, I probably used a whole tree during the process. I'm mostly happy with how they turned out, although a few I might have to change the proportions of the body to make them a bit more starter-y. I'm basing the proportions off of gens 1 and 2 rather than later generations, as I feel the first two gens had better, more realistic anatomy that was lost in later generations as the designs began to be more streamlined for the anime/merchandise. I still hold that gen 3 was the best designed region ever created, but even then you start to see the more anime-ified proportions beginning to rear their ugly heads. I also still hold that, of the first five generations, gen 5 was the worst designed Pokémon generation (gen 9 currently holds that title overall), but I plan on making a whole separate essay that I won't get to in here.
So to summarize, my design philosophy for my fakemon is to take the proportions of gen 1 and try to balance them with the detail/markings seen in gens 3 & 4, while also trying to throw in mons that fit more in line with previous (gens 1-5, gen 6+ is non cannon in my series, see here as to why) generations to add cohesion. It's no secret Pokémon has a bad habit of changing styles each generation, leading to a disconnect between each new set of mons. So my plan is to try to link the different generations together better, blending the styles so that there's more harmony. Whether or not I actually accomplish that is anyone's guess, but it's my plan at least.
I'm not going to get into each design yet, saving that for the final products. As always, feedback is welcome, I'd like to get it now before I waste energy in the final product.
Unfortunately, Reddit is buggy AF, so posting links is proving… difficult… So I'll just post the original DA link which has links to all the originals in them. Gotta love good ol' Reddit…
https://www.deviantart.com/legendguard/art/Line-Art-Starters-Remakes-Collabs-1261015572
by Legendguard