does tracing a photo violate the copywrite?

[THAC0]

struggling wannabe artist here i am working on illustrating a book (that i will profit from). And i have recently found that since the subject of the book is a historical one, that i can take old pictures from the time period, put them in a paint program and then use a pen tool in a separate layer and basically trace the image. sometimes i do this with the entire image, other times i use bits and pieces from a couple of different photos. to create a composite image of sorts. Some times i take some liberties with the image such as changing people's clothing, or hair, or adding shading; other times, i try to stay pretty close to the original.

not one single pixel from the original photo(s) ends up in the finished piece, since i do all the work in a separate layer from the original photo(s), and the layer with the original photos(s) gets deleted at the end of the process.

i don't think this is illegal in any way, but i am willing to admit i could be wrong. I looked online, but just found a bunch of posts on Deviant Art about fan art and stuff that i didn't think exactly applied to what i was doing.

is anyone familiar with this kind of thing, or can give me an idea where to look?

EDIT: To be clear. i AM NOT applying any kind of filter or effect to the original photo(s) every pixel of the finished work is one that i put there by hand..er mouse click.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

And i have recently found that since the subject of the book is a historical one, that i can take old pictures from the time period, put them in a paint program and then use a pen tool in a separate layer and basically trace the image. sometimes i do this with the entire image, other times i use bits and pieces from a couple of different photos. to create a composite image of sorts. Some times i take some liberties with the image such as changing people's clothing, or hair, or adding shading; other times, i try to stay pretty close to the original.

It's called Derivative Works... If significant portions of your work can be proven to be derived from someone else's IP your work becomes their IP. Oh, and the standard of evidence is the Mark 1 Eyeball, so if you put your work and your source work side by side and any schmuck off the street can point out all the pieces that have been lifted and altered, it's a derivative work and some other bunny (or bunnies depending on how wide you sourced) now owns the IP for the work... meaning they can sue you if you try to publish or sell the work.

 

[THAC0]

And i have recently found that since the subject of the book is a historical one, that i can take old pictures from the time period, put them in a paint program and then use a pen tool in a separate layer and basically trace the image. sometimes i do this with the entire image, other times i use bits and pieces from a couple of different photos. to create a composite image of sorts. Some times i take some liberties with the image such as changing people's clothing, or hair, or adding shading; other times, i try to stay pretty close to the original.

It's called Derivative Works... If significant portions of your work can be proven to be derived from someone else's IP your work becomes their IP. Oh, and the standard of evidence is the Mark 1 Eyeball, so if you put your work and your source work side by side and any schmuck off the street can point out all the pieces that have been lifted and altered, it's a derivative work and some other bunny (or bunnies depending on how wide you sourced) now owns the IP for the work... meaning they can sue you if you try to publish or sell the work.

well, that kinda sucks

oh well. i am not too tore up about it, as i enjoy doing this and have seen myself getting better, so i guess its a reason to keep practicing (art, not copyright violations.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

It's OK if you take just parts, NEVER trace the whole image. You must always change significant portions.

Say if you liked the pose of a person in a photo and you wanted to use the pose for your own original character, That would be ok. In this case you aren't stealing the source material, but using it as a reference.

There's a percentage of likeness that gets applied to copyright issues but I don't know it off hand.

Just a good rule of thumb, try to be as original as possible, and tracing the source material on a computer is the same as tracing a picture by hand and saying you drew it.

You can play mix and match though, like Solid Snake's hair and Leonardo Decaprio's face? Mix em up and nobody will call you out since the end result looks like neither.