The courts have ruled in several cases that a work someone created was too close to another work and therefor infringing. If you are looking at someone's paint

The courts have ruled in several cases that a work someone created was too close to another work and therefor infringing. If you are looking at someone's painting or photograph, and then paint your version of that subject based on what you are looking at, you then have created a derived work which may infringe.