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

Photograph Inspired by a Painting?

In this set of images I found interesting that although I think they are coincidental it is possible Simon Bisley's painting with the black panther could have inspired the photograph on the right.  I think it could have been difficult to set up a black panther in the same composition so leaning up against a root is a little less challenging.  Once again I don't think it was a direct inspiration, but I think the photographer may have seen Bisley's painting once in his life.

Simon Bisley 1994 | Photograph 2000

Coincidental Compositions?

These images illustrate another part I find fascinating which is of compositions having very similar arrangements.  Here is a set I found that took me sometime to put together.  Although I think it is a coincidence it is debatable that one could have inspired by the other.  In 99% of all cases it's a painting being inspired by a photograph.

Inspired Photography? Art?

Since the Shepard Fairey Hope image is now part of the social consciousness and later the stories about the use of the Obama image directly from a photograph.  I think this illustrates when things can seem wrong or be wrong.  I don't really gravitate toward any of Fairey's images and I'm not one that cares much for the "rebellious" nature of street art.  I do think the problem lies in the fact that Fairey denied ever using the image I think at first anyways.  It became a question of money which ultimately is the problem.  Had it not be for that I think it wouldn't be a big deal that the image was used from a photograph, but the current laws and the possibilities of financial gain from someone else's work (vise versa) is to hard to pass up.

On another note I imagined the famous Obama pose could have been inspired by a John F. Kennedy image I ran across some time ago.

A cover to an art annual caught my eye when it came out because it reminded me of an artwork from another artist. I apologize for not knowing some artists in these posts. Sometimes you see something and it is uncredited and I will try to credit as many artists as I can. I also would like to be clear in the fact that I'm not trying to point out that anyone has done anything wrong. In fact I included a few of my own work as work that I was influenced by or inspired to create a work of art. I think it's part of the artistic development and also an awareness of images that we like so much we used in our own work. Sometimes it seems fine to do after the original artwork was created many many years ago and other times only a few years and now-a-days months or weeks or even days from the original inception.  It is even accepted in this blog called "Covered" which hosts images directly inspired by a comic or magazine cover.  I also want to point out that some of these images are also images that may not have been used as inspiration of a work of art or photograph, but l found similar in compositions. Some can happen altogether by coincidence. I have almost half a million stored images in my database from magazine scanning, my own photography and internet images. I find similar images all the time in my searches.  I am fascinated by it.  I think we like to compare and contrast things as humans and here I am collecting images that have in many ways similarities, but I think because of laws and being in a consumer society we tend to see these as bad because of their supposed lack of "originality". The truth is that we have been doing this since man have been on Earth. Fashion and consumerism thrives on us buying and looking similar. Without that their wouldn't be fashion or malls or magazines, but in the tight "mystical" community of the arts it is widely looked down upon like we are all living on an island and not in this image injected society.  Give me a break!

Here is one of my images inspired by the Coppertone image engraved in everyone's mind since you are a kid especially if you ever visited a store by a beach.  Also a character named Mandy by an artist whose work has been seen in Playboy, Dean Yeagle.  I have a few of his books.