Keeping your art in a drawer is a choice. So is letting it get better by being seen.

Work kept private stays exactly as good as it is right now. Feedback, embarrassment, the thing you only notice when somebody else is looking at it: all of that is how a draft gets better, and none of it reaches a drawer. Hiding it feels like protecting the work, but mostly it protects you from finding out what needs fixing.

Show one piece to one person this week. Not the internet, not a contest. One person whose opinion you actually want, plus a specific question about the part you are unsure of.