Jimvanhise

March 12, 2008 1:06 pm Wasn't Marvel sued when an artist copied a record album cover photo for the cover of one of their books? This kind of photoswiping seems to happen a lot, and not just with any one artist. First, photos like that have copyrights and the photographer can sue over its use since it isn't just reworked, it is copied exactly. There's a difference between using photo reference for shadows and poses and then doing this. In the past artists would use photos and then rework the image in their own style, but not copy it this exactly. But such reference can be a trap. Al Williamson came to decide that he was spending more time shooting photo reference than he was on the final drawings so he went cold turkey and used no photo reference on that Flash Gordon mini-series he did for Marvel in 1995 just so he could see that he could still draw without using photos as crutches. He was very happy with the final result.