>>42869651you should study starters throughout the different generations to try and figure out how GF designs them.
Don't look at features and details, look at the forms, proportions, silhouettes.
Don't look at charizard and think "oh its tail is on fire, that must be its defining aspect", look at its body shape; that's what makes it unique, the tail is just an eye catching detail.
Think of it like this, a charizard without a flaming tail is a weird charizard, but a charizard with a flaming tail but a completely different body is not a charizard at all. You can't just stick wings on a lizard and light its tail on fire.
That's the problem with most fakemon, I think. They have an eye catching feature that is shared throughout all evolutionary stages, but completely generic and uninteresting body types. That drawing you posted is an example of that, it looks generic, and adding things on top of it will only bloat the design. The problem with it is its form. Experiment with its body shape. Maybe give it a hunched back that goes above its head; make its limbs slim and shredded or thicker and blockier. Do all of this while thinking about how recognizable it would look purely as a silhouette.
