So, I'm posting here for two reasons. One, to have all of my designs in one place. And two, to get design critiques so that I can get better at designing. I'm fairly new to designing with the Spring Fest being the first time I ever actually submitted a design.

If you're giving critiques, then I'd like to ask you to...
(You don't have to do these if you don't want to)
- Name the design you're critiquing so I know which one you're talking about
- Rate the design on a scale of 1-10...or poor to excellent...or :'( to =D
- And obviously, tell me what you'd change

Also including my Spring Fest submissions because I may re-submit some of them for Summer Fest.
Pale Honeysuckle Aeridini


Ancient Oak Aurleon


Purple Clover Bulbori


Spring Buttercup Draeyl


Spring Creek Faelora


Rhododendron Ferrikki


Baby Duck Griffi (I'm well aware that baby ducks are called ducklings, I just liked the sound of baby duck better xp


Hydrangea Kelpari


Thorny Thistle Lighira


Wild Rose Luffox


Crimson Clover Lunemara


Bluebell Lupora


Fireball Azalea Morkko


Virginia Spiderwort Nephini


Raging Floodwaters Ny'vene


Poisonous Pokeberry Nytekrie


Pink Dogwood Puffadore


Tulip Poplar Qitari


Maypop Ryori


Bluet Sylvorpa


Virginia Spring Beauty Vulnyx


Begnonia Capreolata Zolnixi

Watermelon Bubblegum Aeridini
-Originally my Spring 2020 Pale Honeysuckle Aeridini design, except with some minor edits.


Cobalt Fire Aurleon


Bulbori

Draeyl

Faelora

Ferrikki

Griffi

Pearl Sea Kelpari
I like the name, but I don't know that it necessarily describes the theme. Thoughts?


Lighira

Luffox

Lunemara

Lupora

Morkko

Nephini

Ny'vene

Nytekrie

Puffadore

Energy Storm Qitari


Blackberry Ryori


River Clam Sylvorpa


Cottonmouth Vulynx


Zolnixi

Hello~
Since the changes I'd make are mainly color changes, I figured I'd load one of the designs into the generator to edit it.
The Ancient Oak Aurleon has a nice color palette, but I figured that the body looked a little dark. I ended up just going from there.


The blue on the original design didn't really make sense to me. I feel like it would be pretty as an eye color, but I personally felt like it didn't fit with the theme and the rest of the colors. I changed it to an orange-y gold to look like little mushrooms growing on an old tree.
The green looked a little too dull in my opinion, so I decided to swap it out for a more vibrant, leafy green.
I changed the body color as well, as that specific shade of brown didn't really make me think of a tree. I recognize that the brown I chose isn't a bark shade, but I feel like it works well with the lighter brown, more bark-like trait colors to give the Aur more of a woody look.
One of the things I personally really like in natural designs is unity. I designed the Poinsettia Aeridini back in 2016 (you can find the submitted images in my profile) and I tried to make sure that the poinsettia red didn't clash or seem overpowering, but I also wanted to make sure that it wasn't hiding. I initially tried to go for a brighter palette, but it ended up looking far more cartoon-y than realistic. The bright green in this design is the loudest color, but it does not draw attention away from the poinsettia red. The subtle differences between the dark greens helps to give the illusion that the design is only one red, one dark green and one bright green, when in fact it's one red, one bright green, and three or four different dark greens. Another thing I did to give this design a more natural look was make sure that there are few areas that are a single solid color. I tried to make sure that the contrasting colors blended and seemed to fit together instead of staying separate (like they did in this Firelight Aurleon design from 2016, also by me) in order to make the design look less busy.
"Pro" tip: even if the thing you're basing your themed design on has colors that are wildly different from one another, take into account the fact that those same colors will not always work together quite as well as you had planned.
I was basing the Firelight Aur off of a campfire or hearth fire, and I had tried to capture the coals, ash, sparks and orange flames in one design. While the colors are more accurate to what glowing coals and ash actually look like, I did not focus in on that specific area of the fire, and ultimately failed to create a good-looking design. Had I focused purely on the glowing coals and ash and called it the Glowing Coals or Dying Fire Aurleon, or even focused on the flames and made the Aur orange and yellow with perhaps a warm red color (examples: Charmander, Torchic, and a bunch of other fire-type Pokemon), the design would be much better.
"Pro" tip: If your inspiration is something with multiple different parts (example: the flames and coals of a fire), pick one part or area and work with that.
Another one of my Winter 2016 designs was this Christmas Tree Zolnixi. While this isn't one of my best designs, you can see that I tried to stick to greens that worked well together to represent the tree itself, while also adding a bright, contrasting red for a bit of tinsel on the tree. The white tips on the leaf trappings is a nod to a dusting of snow on the tree's branches. I would've loved to try to incorporate the classic gold star and the many little ornaments on the tree, but I felt that the design looked too busy with all the wildly different colors layered on top of each other.
"Pro" tip: sometimes sacrifices need to be made in order to make a design look good.
This next design is incredibly simple and has a very simple color palette, but it's a good example of a design that just doesn't look good no matter what you do. This Hot Chocolate Lighira design (also from Winter 2016) has two very nice, very subtly different browns as the base colors, but the bright, perfectly white "marshmallows" clash heavily with the brown body. I would love to redo this theme, perhaps with a very desaturated light brown instead of the bright white, but unfortunately it won't look much like marshmallows in rich hot cocoa no matter what I do due to lack of soft blending between the spots and the body.
I hope this was helpful for you :).
Here are some more of my old entries if you wish to use them as inspiration.
Candy Cane Kelpari, Snow Tiger Griffi, Holly Branch Faelora, Seafoam Bulbori, Summer Forest Faelora, Coral Kelpari, Leopard Gecko Draeyl, Crystal Beach Lighira, Hunting Trip Lupora (original designs here: (m)(f)), Fishing Trip Morkko, Barred Owl Nytekrie, Summer Fun Qitari, Golden Tiger Vulnyx, Pink Rose Aeridini, Babbling Brook Aurleon, Lavender Bulbori, Purple Crocus Draeyl and White Crocus Draeyl, Dryad Faelora, Iris Griffi, Sacred Lotus Kelpari, Flower Field/Spring Meadow Lighira, Emerald Lunemara (made pre-revamp and accent color implementation; original here), Pineapple Aeridini

Hello,
Personally I think most of your designs are really nice they could just use some small colour changes. I'm not the most experienced designer but I have seen lots of nice designs in my day to know which colour pallets are typically liked.


Lets start off with your Pale Honeysuckle Aeridini.
I'd give it 6.5/10
Its not a bad design but it could have a few colours be a little brighter, just a little. I know its Pale honey suckle Aeridini but I feel that you can see and notice pale colours a bit better if theres something small that just a bit bright. I'm not actually too sure but I just feel like its missing something in its colours that its just too plain and simple.


Bluebell Lupora
7/10
This design isn't too bad maybe just make the green a little more visible? I'm not sure if there actually needs to be more green, it might be the traits but I feel like the green could just be a bit more there.



Rhododendron Ferriki
7/10
Nothing too wrong about this maybe just make the colour 1 a bit paler and brighter (only slightly) like a real rhododendron?

Thank you so much for your critique! I took your advice from the 2nd pro-tip and kind of singled out one aspect of the tree to go after, in this case the bark. I moved the blue to the eyes, and I kind of like how it shows up with some mutations. I decided to go with gray, grayish green, and grayish brown as my primary colors since that's what comes to my mind when I think of bark, as well as a little moss that can usually be found on a lot of trees (at least here they can). The design is inspired by an old oak tree on our property that's close to 200 years old, hence ancient oak. What made me decide to go with the bark aspect is the fact that it's ancient. You can't tell by the leaves because they're normal sized leaves, but if you look at it's trunk you see one of the biggest trunks you could possibly see here. I feel like the design has a bit more of a neutral feel to it now, but I think that kind of fits the bark aspect.

Thank you so much for your advice! <3

With the Pale Honeysuckle Aeridini I made the paler colors that I wanted to stand out more a bit brighter/more vibrant. I think they actually look a lot more like pink honeysuckle now minus some yellow/orange. xD


For the Bluebell Lupora I just made the green a little more vibrant/darker. I think the green stands out a little more now.


Made the C1 a little paler and brighter on the Rhododendron Ferrikki, also tweaked the purple a little bit because looking at it again the purple felt like it was a bit too dark and overwhelming.

Beautiful! This is quite a nice themed design :). Old trees are super awesome

I may critique more if I get time and feel like it. :)

Pale Honeysuckle Aeri - So it's not my favorite, but I do still like it. I feel the colors on your original are too dull, and the colors on the revamp make me think more of watermelon bubblegum than pale honeysuckle. I played around with it a bit and I came up with this:

I mostly did some minor tweaks, but I did change the M2 from that blueish color to a pale, light pink. Most of the other pinkish colors I moved from the red area to the area kind of between red and purple. I think this made them pop a bit more. The tail flower just seemed way too bright, but I think I got it too pale as it now seems to blend a bit with the rest of the body. Overall, I think you should really consider the name of this theme. If you're going with 'pale' it needs to have some aspect of pale colors. :)



Ancient Oak Aurl - I really liked this one. I do think making the C1 a tad brighter and the M1 a smidge more vibrant will make it look better. When I see it, I get an enchanted forest vibe, but ancient oaks works too.



Purple Clover Bulbori - Maybe make it paler? The colors just do not seem to go well together, in my opinion. Maybe something like this?



Baby Duck Griff - Only thing I might change is the green. Ducks are water creatures so I think something like a dark blue would look better. Also, keep in mind, when ducks grow up, many of them have a blue patch of feathers on their wing. ;D



I love the Bluet Vorp, Virginia Spring Beauty Vulnyx, Blackberry Ryo, and River Clam Vorp! <3

Just asking.. but do you use references?

It helps me evaluate your color scheme and tell what's off.

Also.. which ones are you LEAST proud with? I can help you!

Yes, I do use references. Usually I don't search things on google, almost all of my designs are inspired by something I've seen on my property. :)

Let's see...the one's I'm least proud of...probably the Spring Buttercup Draeyl, Fireball Azalea Morkko, and Pink Dogwood Puffadore.