Commercial Break

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“Too many people today know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” -Oscar Wilde

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I thought I would do a little humor today, shaken up with a pinch of grumbling. The quote that I found isn’t meant to point fingers at others (because I hate it when people complain about ‘society’ as if they are not a part of it), but it is such a great quote to go with my thoughts today!

Something that’s been aggravating me lately is ads. Confession #1: I play games on my phone. Confession #2: I watch a lot of streaming. In both of these areas, I’ve found that ads are not just annoying, they are predatory. The only way around them is money.

Furthermore – On my streaming channels – it’s sad that you can opt in to pay less (not nothing!) – if you agree to subject yourself to ads. That’s insane. I think that ad soaked channels should be FREE, and that’s my final two cents.

(Just wondering… does this pay less for ads only apply to the U.S., or is it everywhere?)

Anyway, I thought I would do my own ‘artwork meme’ to illustrate how it makes me feel when my pleasure is interrupted by an advertisement that I’ve watched at least 10 times in one sitting.

The man in the image is pushing the soothing sea scene apart, to allow “a word from our sponsors,” and I’m pretty sure that girl on the boat has captured my feelings with her expression. Notice how she refuses to look at the ad?!

Fortunately, I had a blast with this illustration – so I’m happy that I was able to turn my grievance into an inspiration.

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So, the entire piece I’ve done is a collection of pixabay images (6, to be exact). I masked and did the composition in Photoshop, then followed the tutorial that I shared a few days ago to give it the illustrated look.

I have shared the original below because I’m curious which one people might prefer – photo-realistic composites OR illustrated versions that look more like a cartoon.

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I actually like them both, and the photo-realistic version is less work, but I also like the idea of making it more like a graphic. On the other hand I don’t have to worry if the masking is perfect when I move to illustration mode. Now I’m also wondering if it would be cooler in black and white.

I guess I’m just keeping myself amused with Photoshop since that’s the only program I have at the moment, haha. Anyway, that’s about all for now.

Thank you for looking or reading… I hope you enjoyed something here!

Until next time… peace & love!
-Janet