Build your hand-drawn celebrity fan site

For example, if you are a student studying art and you use someone elseʼs famous artwork as a reference for a class assignment, it may be considered fair use. On the other hand, if you sell your drawing or sketch without the permission of the original photographer, it could be a copyright violation.

As a general rule, fan art is illegal to sell on Etsy or anywhere else if the seller doesnʼt have the proper legal permission from the copyright and trademark.

If you are making money from fan art, whether you are selling it or otherwise benefiting financially, this is generally illegal. That said, even if you are making a profit, you may be able to get away with it if your work is considered a parody of the original work.

If you have snapped a celebrity, caught someone famous on camera, or own old images of a famous person you can sell them right here! Talk to the Press will help you sell photos of a celebrity to the international press. Youʼll see your pictures appear in some of the worldʼs leading publications.

The general rule is that if the painting is a straightforward, realistic depiction of the celebrity, this may be a violation of the celebrityʼs right of publicity.

You can sell a fine art painting of a celebrity as long as it is a transformative work of art. This means it needs to be artistic in nature, not just a faithful likeness. The painting cannot copy an existing work of art (including a photo), and cannot interfere with a celebrityʼs right of publicity.

Using a personʼs image for commercial purposes could expose you to a potential legal action for defamation and for ʼpassing offʼ. ʼPassing offʼ means that an infringement of the law would take place if it could be inferred from your artwork that a link existed between you and another person when this was not the case.