12: Tiny Gains

“Compound Growth: Small, consistent improvements (even just 1% better each day) can lead to significant progress over time.“

You’re Reading Adam Ming’s Daily Blog, This month I’m writing a series about taking time for your creative practice. Each post, includes an invitation to spend ten minutes developing your creative practice.

I’m doing this in October to complement any Drawing challenge you might be doing. I will be doing the classic inktober.

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Today's 10-Minute Invitation: Tiny Gains

For today's practice, we're going to focus on making a tiny improvement in one specific aspect of your creative work. Here's your invitation:

Choose one small, specific element of your craft.

Set a timer for 10 minutes.

After your session, write down one specific way you've improved, no matter how small. Perhaps your lines are slightly smoother, your word choice more precise, or your timing more accurate.

Finally, consider how you might build on this tiny gain tomorrow.

Too Big Too Soon.

Art school is a great place to learn all the misconceptions about making art from other art students.

Because the confirmation bias of these mistakes is so strong, it seems like truth. One of these misconceptions is that you need to make big work. To be considered a serious artist. Which is why when I moved to the city, the first thing I sought out was a big studio to make big paintings. In 2 years, I never completed a single painting

I was focused on the wrong thing, creating gallery quality work, when I should have focused on building a creative practice.

In the end, I had to give up the studio and get a job, which lead to my Startup Decade.

When I remembered I was supposed to be an artist, I did things different and started small.

The Benefits of Tiny Gains

1. Compound Growth: Small, consistent improvements (even just 1% better each day) can lead to significant progress over time.

2. Micro-Improvements: Break down creative skills into tiny, manageable improvements that can be practiced daily.

3. Psychological Benefits: Focusing on tiny gains helps overcome perfectionism and builds momentum, making the creative process less daunting.

4. Consistency Over Intensity: Regular, small efforts are more effective for long-term growth than sporadic, intense sessions.

5. Long-Term Impact: Tiny gains, accumulated over time, can lead to mastery and significant creative achievements.

In Working to Become an Illustrator I did a ton of little steps, these are some of them.

1. Draw and post things daily

2. Try various digital brushes

3. Practice lettering

4. Write to agents and publishers

5. Ask pro’s for advice

6. Interact with working artist

7. Join online meet-ups

8. Practice illustrating characters

9. Practice illustrating diverse faces

10. Practice drawing poses

11. Practice drawing icons

12. Learn about the practice of other professionals.

Today’s Inktober prompt was ‘Remote’

Today’s drawing was not a great drawing by any stretch, my tiny gain was discovering that this carbon ink that I use doesn’t bleed through the paper of my bullet journal. That’s a small piece of information today, but really useful for future drawing sessions.

What tiny gain have you noticed in your creative practice recently?

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