Are "celebrity" portraits from photos valid?

[Virgil Elliott]

Any time one copies a photograph taken by someone else, it is a copyright violation, and plagiarism. Art consists of a great deal more than just making a picture, and light-years beyond the mere copying of photographs. If the photographer and the painter are the same person, there is at least no question of copyright infringement, but the question of whether it is art remains open. My advice to any artist below Master level is to lock that camera in a drawer for the next fifteen or twenty years, until you don't need it any more. Otherwise, it will interfere with your artistic development.

Virgil Elliott