Basil Gogos Frankenstein Painting

Original photo used to create one of the classic paintings of Frankenstein. One I used as reference to create Creatura 8. The lack of color photography or high expense of it may have influenced the artist to exaggerate the colors even more.  So the question I have in mind is whether it is okay to use a photograph directly if you have full right to?  In this case it is an assignment and the artist is an illustrator.  Basil Gogo's used the image and painted in the way he is best known for.  His palette is unmistakably his own and the mood he has created is almost unapparent in the bland photo reference to the left.

Frankenstein and Dracula Creatura Paintings

I love classic monsters from Hollywood, but who doesn't right?  I started my Creatura series in 2008 with some Garbage Pail Kids images and slowly evolved into monsters.  My Creaturas are images where I combine at least two images together in a painting to make one completely new image yet still having those unique shapes of the original images.  Sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it does.  It takes a bot of work to make it work in preproduction and during the painting process itself.

Weird Image Inspiration

In this set I have no idea which came first since I don't know who the artist on the right is.  The one on the left is Glen Fabry in one of the paintings done for the comic book Preacher.  I just thought it was particular that an image of a winged demon on top of another figure one resembling the act of sex and the other in the act of sex.  Strange and full of impact and debatable on whether one was inspired by the other.

Images used in Tattoos

Another thing I wondered was the use of images in tattoos.  The manner it is created with actual tracing of lines and copying exact images from well-known images leaves me thinking is it necessarily right and is the artist ever compensated or want to be compensated for the images "forever" etched into people's skin. Two "LD Monster" images have been used as tattoos.  One I had no idea about and the other I was asked to create a tie to the LD Monster image shown here for a fan.  Of course I was excited to see this done and also because he bought a lot of my art in the past.

Garbage Pail Kids Homage

I worked for The Topps Company doing freelance work since 2004 and when I wanted to give some free cards to fans when they asked for autographs I created the "Infect Ted" image based on Page Cage/Tommy Ache from the original cards that came out when I was around 8 years old.  Garbage Pail Kids always inspired me and even after they were gone it was in and around my mind for years and of course once they came out again I was pretty aware of the impact they had made on me.  I have some cards available in this site:  Luis Diaz Artcardswanted

Another Comic Book Adaptation

Once thing that I have been debating has been the issue of images after a person death (I think 75 years after) the image of the artist becomes public domain. I also think that there are some loopholes that gives the family of the artist rights passed that. Here is an image from a well-known image by Frazetta of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter and the Princess of Mars. Here the image is used in another comic book with some changes.

Comic Books & Classic Images

This one is a very common pair and relatively widely accepted form of homage to another artist.  Comic Books seem to do this more frequently than any other print form.  There are hundreds of these.  Sometimes from images that aren't very old or pay homage to an earlier version of similar subject matters. Some images that come to mind are the first appearances of Spider-man, Batman and Superman.  Those are widely copied.  (I don't like the world copy because of the connotation it evinces, but in this case it doesn't seem to disrespect the works of art.)


James O'Barr The Crow Cover 1993 | John William Waterhouse "Circe Indiviosa" 1892