RE: Of Copyright Issues, Public Domain, Creative Commons, Cabbages, Kings and Fools ................
One of the things I used to do when I was young was to go to the Academy in Vienna (where Peter Gric later studied in the Master class of Arik Brauer). It has a excellent art museum, and I watched students copy old masters to learn techniques, composition, color etc. This is still practiced today in some places where traditional methods are taught.
A excellent article about this is:
Example shown in this article:
Blackhead, Monhegan by Edward Hopper - public domain
Image: https://www.wikiart.org/en/edward-hopper/blackhead-monhegan-1919
Maybe one of the sad developments in this day and age is that art students are discouraged, and seemingly here on Steemit bullied, for honing their skills by learning from others and from their peers.
I for one have no problem with someone trying to copy my work, my technique - which I have also taught in workshops. I have published many of my artworks on Flickr with a CC tag and certainly would not go after someone to learn by copying my work.
Picasso supposedly said: “good artists copy, great artists steal”
but regardless if he said it or not, this is a quote that is well known. A good answer to this is found in Quora: Whether this quote is from Picasso, or merely attributed to him, doesn't make much of a difference. The underlying meaning of the message is the same either way
UPDATE:
I included these points and expanded on it in a separate post:
GOOD ARTISTS COPY, GREAT ARTISTS STEAL - quote attributed to Picasso