Copyright / Legality Portfolio Question

Greg DAlessandro

I plan on becoming a character artist. Initially, I will use images from google for anatomy studies and likeness sculpts, but eventually I want to populate my portfolio. I am concerned about the legality and copyright of including reference images in my portfolio. 

Questions:

1) Am I legally allowed to include character likeness sculpts based on real people in my portfolio?

  a) Do I need to get permission by the actual person?

2) Is it okay include sculpts based on someone else's concept art in my portfolio? 

  a) Am I only allowed to do so after I am given permission by the original author?  

3) In my portfolio, is it a frowned upon to show reference images and concept art that my sculpts are based on, or should I only show my work and just provide links to the original sources, giving credit to the authors? I don't want to be misleading, but I also don't know if it would be beneficial to include references to compare to my sculpts

Thank you.

sacboi

Yes, seeking permission or crediting the relevant author if referencing an original work as for images I usually access public domain/copyleft/creative commons...etc but again AFAIK when a pic is closed source, legally permission would be a requirement but for piece of mind at least I think IP related issues are really the provence of lawyers and the like.

JordanN

Yourname942 said:

2) Is it okay include sculpts based on someone else's concept art in my portfolio? 

  a) Am I only allowed to do so after I am given permission by the original author?  

If you know who the original concept artist is, it should be easy to just shoot them an email or PM on social media to at least notify or politely ask if you can use their work as reference/inspiration. 

3) In my portfolio, is it a frowned upon to show reference images and concept art that my sculpts are based on, or should I only show my work and just provide links to the original sources, giving credit to the authors? I don't want to be misleading, but I also don't know if it would be beneficial to include references to compare to my sculpts

I've debated myself on doing something similar with my portfolio and the answer I've reached is just make it a single image or small collage and keep it tucked in the corner. Just filling your portfolio with reference images is just going be clutter, especially when the whole point is sto how art that you made, rather than pictures associated with it.

Here's a good example of a portfolio that includes reference images but keeps it to a minimum. First image is a beauty shot, followed by a turnaround, then the untextured model, and then a setup of the scene and the references. 

Brian "Panda" Choi

1) Yes.
1a) Not all the time.  At least try to ask.

2) Yes
2a) Not all the time.  At least try to ask.

3) Show credit and references.