Honest Answers please

[druidcitycomic]

People are pretty media-literate these days so there's a chance the homage will be noticed. I think you could try to be more original with your poses for the most part but all things considered every piece of clothing your going to see on most people is made by a company anyway. So you're only lifting from what happens in the everyday world anyhow.

[joannekwan]

Don't pay it any mind. Sometimes people will even draw connections between your work and something you've never even seen!
It can't be helped.
So just do you and you're fine!

[inbox_anime]

Take this as sample.. The character is original but clothing was references from kingdom hearts.. The story is that people with such clothing are dragon worshipers

[joannekwan]

I think the most KH's thing about it are the dangly metal bits coming off the jacket's front. Change them or delete them altogether and none would be the wiser to your inspiration.

[adrienclifton]

Pretty immediately I recognized the cloak as that of org 13! I was really deep into KH a million years ago when I was a kid. What gave it away most, however, were the chains and the shape of the dangly pointy bits on them.

Perhaps you can alter the design of the robe more to suit the world your character is in? A small change could be adding a subtle dragon wing or skull in place of the pointy bit on the chains, and a bigger change could be perhaps changing the silhouette of the robe, such as slimmer sleeves or added layers.

If they are dealing with dragons directly, perhaps they might need heat protection?
If they are not directly dealing with dragons, and generally only interact with them as dieties, perhaps the dragons or fire are a popular/fitting decorative element?

[inbox_anime]

Thank you all for your Answers I really appreciate it .. Time to head back to the drawing board..

[amortelito]

I was reading the case of a mangaka who lost her credibility and basically destroyed her career for using poses from other mangas I guess people will not get mad if it is clearly a tribute and you say so, but if you use the clothes for your oc and the poses for your comic people will go crazy. Nowadays there are so many self-appointed "internet detectives" that will find out if you copied.

[inbox_anime]

dahell!!. This is outrageous, this is worst..
What I meant was. Taking his clothing style but posing will be.. Perhaps leaning on a table..

[Teowi]

There was a similar case for the artist of No Game No Life. I think the big deal is that poses count as original content, whether from a photo or drawing. It's illegal to use someone else's as a reference and earn money from your work.

[yozhikisblue]

Huh. I've never heard of this, but I have to say- as someone who doesn't read manga all that extensively, it just seems a little- odd? Looking at these covers I could swear I've seen the poses and composition on them replicated by many different artists. The girl with flowers and young man resting against a smaller woman's lap- both of these seem like very popular choices to me while browsing the shoujo manga section at a local comic shop, much like western superhero comics tend to replicate certain types of poses and angles in their covers. I guess I just wonder where the line is drawn? At what point are the poses considered a copy, given that there are certain poses the human body naturally gravitates towards and look good as a composition? I mean...it's not that I can't see the similarities in the examples you've provided, but at the risk of sounding ignorant- does this kind of thing typically cause a fuss?

[J.Z.Castillo]

I mean artists steal all the time, it becomes a problem when you are trying to pass something you didn't create as your own. But if what you're making is original and completely your own, regardless of what references it may allude to, you are fine, don't worry about it. However, let's say you make an original story and call it Spider-guy and it's about a teenager living in Los Angeles who gets bitten by a spider then that's pushing it A LOT, you know? So if your story/characters are not complete carbon copies of something that already exists you'll be fine.

[J.Z.Castillo]

This is what I mean by carbon copy. You can use other people's works as references but when you can literally trace the images over it becomes a big no no. You can have pictures that are similar but never trace.

[BobbyjoeX]

i have a massive ref on my chapter 2 title card, it refs both the clothes and pose of the original but i didn't out right trace it

[inbox_anime]

Designed this without ref. But someone said he looks like Noctis.. . I do believe real life humans got oblong shaped head too.

[BobbyjoeX]

eh... not enough to worry about it in my opinion

[amortelito]

@yozhikisblue Oh yeah!! Definitely, there are common areas and poses. I mean art is so saturated that someone somewhere must have thought about your idea before. I have dumped to the trash some drawings that I made 8 years ago that now resemble a popular manga covers...I made them first but people will accuse me of stealing from a popular artist. Honestly, I give people the benefit of the doubt when they are accused of stealing because accidental similarities happen.
Also, we can't ignore that trends exist. Like in the 90's posters in which all characters were distributed in a V. Shojo manga has pastels and flowers randomly flying around. Sometimes the line is blurred. This mangaka in the example got caught because she stole covers from the same artists all the time. Clamp is pretty famous but if she had copied from smaller publications people wouldn't have noticed. Also, Clamp published those before the others ..yes we can say they own that composition.

But usually, art thieves get caught because they do it constantly.
.
- Their art is a carbon copy that is impossible to ignore. For example the cover with the girl and the flowers. The image is traced from the original cover. We might find lots of covers that have the same idea. But is incredibly unlikely two people make the exact same.

Exactly @BobbyjoeXforgotensb you clearly made a tribute cover inspired in a music album but I don't think some would ever say is a copy.

[joannekwan]

I think it's because his hair comes into a pointed v bang down the center of his face, and also that he's got a glowy magic hand and sword.

[eochoa92]

At a convention last year, I attended a panel with Kevin Eastman (creator of the Ninja Turtles).
He said this funny story on his first time meeting Stan Lee. When Kevin met Stan, Stan told Kevin that he was pretty darn close to suing Kevin because of the Turtles' similarities to Daredevil;
Daredevil's powers came from a chemical spill. Turtles from an ooze.
Daredevil fights a syndicate known as The Hand. The Turtles fight The Foot.
Daredevil has Stick. Turtles have Splinter.
etc,etc,etc.

[Kamikaze]

You. Watch this NOW. Especially since people are so concerned about the line between copy, tribute and original content. Seriously, this little video changed the way I make my comics.

[caelesc]

Came here to write about the No Game No Life author, like @Teowi mentioned. This case also proves, that even if you trace from non-published artists like on Pixiv or dA you will still get caught at one point.

Just check out the whole article: http://www.otakutale.com/2014/no-game-no-life-artist-yuu-kamiya-allegedly-caught-tracing-other-peoples-work/
Or check out this one http://www.comipress.com/article/2007/07/09/2267

And remember, even if you haven't copied, people will still see similarities. E.g. D.Gray-man author was pulled from Shounen Jump as she got caught in the middle of a plagiarism scandal, but it was later agreed that no plagiarism was involved. Despite that D.Gray-Man now runs in their monthly magazine instead of their weekly magazine.

So, if you really feel stuck with some poses or gestures, I recommend taking a picture of yourself for reference. I doubt it's plagiarism since both mediums belong to you. But I know a number of artist will look down on you if you trace from photos instead of just using them for reference.