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Drawing · by Noah Miller · 2026-08-29

A gentle rant about critique and expectations after a tiny failure

I started this because my late summer felt a little stuck, and practice seemed like a manageable place to experiment. The funny part is that the smallest change was the one I kept.

Part of me wanted the fancy version with all the tools. The better version was boring: one notebook, one reminder, and a willingness to be clumsy with the practice run for a while.

> Tiny progress is still progress.

That line sounds cheesy, but it got me through the part where practice stopped feeling new.

18 sparks · 6 comments

Comments

Tomás Gómez · 0 likes

That last line is excellent. I keep a note about sketch for exactly this reason.

Jonas Schneider · 1 likes

The best answer in the thread, honestly.

Ren Suzuki · 0 likes

You just saved me a bad purchase.

Noah Campbell · 0 likes

I had the same reaction to saved.

Amelia Hughes · 0 likes

Exactly; the hidden cost is energy.

Amelia Hughes · 0 likes

I wonder how much of this depends on timing. The chaotic constraint is probably the real story.