Computer Arts - UK (2019-06)

EMBRACE YOUR MISTAKES

Craig Black doesn’t
just share finished
work with audiences
(like this London
Calling installation,
shown below), but
also his mistakes.

the yellow on top. “And it was horrendous. The

grey was shining right through. It was a disaster.”

He’d already spent a day getting it to this

point, and was now well behind schedule: a film

crew was due to be at the studio in just a few days.

THE IMPORTANCE OF OPENNESS

When you make a mistake, it’s not so much about

the mistake itself, but how you deal with it. And

Black’s story offers a textbook example of how to

turn things around.

First, he told the client about the mistake

he’d made. Then he set to work putting things

right, working through the night and through the

following day. “I had to do another coat of yellow,

just to even it out as much as possible,” he says.

“Then I added three coats of white, until basically

I’d taken things back to the start. Effectively, I’d

lost two and a half days of painting.”

Black then worked from morning until late at

night for the next two days, to ensure the mural

was completed in time. It was a tough slog, to say

the least. But he learned a couple of important

lessons along the way.

“The main lesson, obviously, was to trust my

gut in future,” he says. “But when you’re under

pressure that way, you also learn a lot about what

you’re capable of. There were plenty of times

when I thought: ‘I could just give up here and go

home.’ But there was something saying: ‘Keep

going, keep plugging away, keep doing it Craig.’

And that determination came through and just

pushed me on.”

In the end, the mural was very well received,

and he’s secured numerous commissions off the

back of it. “Would I have got all that if I’d not

made that mistake?” he wonders. “I have no idea,

but it was all part of the process of getting that

final result.”

UNEXPECTED SOLUTIONS

And that’s an important point, because

mistakes are often integral to the creative process,

and can even lead to unexpected solutions and

‘When you’re

under pressure,

you also learn a

lot about what

you’re capable of’

CRAIG BLACK

COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM