The thing that sucks about FireAlpaca is that I don't have many brush options to choose from (I could download some from the internet but I'm a bit worried about how good they'll be). So I tried making velvet with the brushes that I had at my disposal.
None of these look particularly good, those I have been told that the second attempt looks the best of the three (to be fair, the third attempt would've looked better but I got tried and decided to stop early). Despite that none of them looks like velvet, it was still good practice to look at something and try to recreate it.
Yeah, you make a good point. And I completely agree; if I can get things to look great with only simple tools, then I'll have the skills to make them look even better when I get more brushes/get Photoshop back.
If it brings a little closer to your goal than the label of failed is misused. Nice thing about rudimentary tools is if you can make them work you will be even better when you upgrade.