One of the old sayings about art goes something like this "Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal" - I believe that was Pablo Picasso. Basically - all artists are influenced by another, by what we see around us. It is a good artist's job to change a few things and call it something new... a GREAT artist's job is to create something you THINK is new, by taking influence and turning it into a new approach - for example from sculpture to illustration, or a book to a film, etc. Something I learned in my early days as an illustrator is that everything is constructed from geometric shapes... sometimes it's HOW you look at something that gives the different result. 20 people in a room drawing a life model will all come away with sketches of the same person - but each from a slightly different angle, in a different style. Same but different. I always remember that when creating. Good luck! Feel free to contact me to discuss further. -Jeffrey Pittle