illustrations

[richart]

What is the name of your state? New York

I am an illustrator who primarily creates Caricature of celebrities for
print media. I wanted to branch out into creating a line of t-shirts with
my illustrations on it. (non of the ones that have been purchased by
clients) I wanted to know if this is allowed or do I need to get the
permission of each celebrity. The work in my artistic representation of
the celebrity and not a photo.

[divgradcurl]

Are the celebrities alive or dead?

When you draw the pictures, are you basing them on a photograph, or from memory? If the former, how did you acquire the photograph -- did you take it, or how did you get it?

[richart]

They are of both live and dead celebrities. I have a collection of images of each celebrity that I use as reference. I get these images from magazines and or the web.

[dworrill]

Parodies, Satire, Puns

[clay2022]

I currently Im trying to answer the same kind of question an dthis is what I have found from copyright passages.

Independent creation is permitted. A second work, identical to an earlier copyrighted work, does not infringe, if it is, in fact, independently created. [Of course, the better known the first work, the less likely that an independent creation defense will be believed.]