Post 5: Back to the Drafting Board
This semester, I’ve interacted with cross-curricular aspects that have provided unique learning opportunities in reflecting upon fields I normally wouldn’t have correlated with each other. The greatest example of this is found between my work within this course (WRIT-150) along with my that in my “Art of Theatrical Design” class (THTR-132B). Both of these classes involve the heavy development of “drafting skills”, but the type of drafting of which is emphasized in the two classes is different. While exploring drafting through writing and drafting through design simultaneously provides its unique challenges, it also allows connections to be drawn between the two mediums. (While this reflection could be considered as an extension of one of my chapters within my WP2, the ability to compare and contrast my experience in both of these mediums feels more appropriate as a separate piece of analysis)
Starting by spotting the similarities, in both versions of drafting, drafts involve putting the creator’s ideas into well-organized, complete thoughts that can be easily understood and communicated. Both interpretations allow for various “formats of organizing the included material” which is decided by the creator (based on what they believe to be the most effective way of getting their message across). In my personal experience with both types of drafting, multiple revisions are practically required. The first draft is never the perfect draft, despite how well one might think they did at the time of completion. As time progresses and ideas change upon reflection, drafts can be revisited in order to better communicate the new vision of “what’s on the page”.
When viewing writing and design drafts side-by-side, there are some defining differences which can be seen between the two. Typically, writing drafts are more word-based while design drafts are heavily reliant on the presence of images. While drafts of writing can expand to include more multimodal elements, design drafts lose a lot of their purpose if crowded by words that don’t provide a clear example of the designer’s envisioned concept(s). While both versions of drafting seek to clearly display ideas, design drafts put a higher emphasis on the accuracy of the included information (especially regarding details utilizing measurements and scale). Although many writers use drafts to “speak their truth”, these practices are not held to the same degree of precision.
Through understanding their similarities and differences, as I continue to practice both on my artistic journey, my experiences with drafting can serve as an example on the wide variety of skills I should continue to keep building upon as an artistic intellectual. With each style of drafting, there are small reminders that I can apply to my creative process when working on my next production: don’t be afraid to erase or cross things out, don’t feel like you have to apologize if you want to completely restart if something doesn’t look right or the way you want it to, and don’t feel afraid to put your pencil to the paper and…
begin.
