Moving from California to Connecticut almost two years ago meant one unfortunate thing; we had to leave behind our pet guinea pig, Roxy. Thankfully she has been getting a lot of love and treats from my girlfriend’s family, but it has been hard being away from her for so long. I was not a guinea pig person when we picked her out at PetSmart, but she became a part of our family.
While the occasional Zoom call and the picture have been nice, being away from friends, family and Roxy for almost a year has been hard. To make myself laugh, I sometimes think about the strange adventures Roxy could be up to while we are away. Thus, I decided to create a composition to illustrate one of Roxy’s adventures.
For the composition, I took over ten different photos and combined them into one image. The story I wanted to tell was of Roxy exploring an old ghost town in the middle of a midwest prairie. The photos I used are primarily from our trips through Nevada and when we moved to Connecticut. A lot of the midwest is full of bizarre locations so I wanted to combine them into one distinct composition.
In creating my composition, I decided to use the concept-generation process in Graphic Design Solutions. I prepared what I wanted my design to be, took a moment to think about it and sketched a basic design. From there I doubled down on the design and refocused what I wanted it to be. After thinking about my composition and sketching it out, I decided to have more fun with it by adding objects like the giant head in the background and the creepy doll in the house. Without taking a moment to think about the design, I would have gone with a more literal composition.
The composition shows Roxy, wearing her favorite cowboy hat, looking out onto a town mostly devoid of life. There is an abandoned jail off in the distance, and a house falling apart close by. The main focus in formulating this composition was paying attention to the depth of the objects. Following the principles of foreground, middle ground, and background underlined by Anthony Fontana, Roxy is set in the foreground to show dominance. The middle ground is the ground with the other objects and the background is the sky. I also played with depth in the broken-down house to have the house partially covering the doll, to show that the doll is inside the house.
I feel the piece works well because even though the pictures are taken from all over the country, they fit together well. I also enjoy how weird it is, like why is there a giant stone head off in the distance or where do I get a cowboy hat for my guinea pig? I also enjoyed going back and using the masking and clipping tools in Photoshop.
Works Cited:
Landa, R. (2019). Chapter 5: Concept Generation and Creativity. In Graphic design solutions (6th ed., pp. 91-110). Boston, MA: Cengage.
Fontana, A. (n.d.). Intro to Composition [PPT]. Bowling Green: Bowling Green State University.
Bailey MeCey 
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