Considerations

I have always wanted to have an artistic outlet. Seeing as I can barely draw a straight line this seemed like a pretty distant dream. Lately thought, I have found a program called Ponyscape. Which, I believe, is a mod or version of Inkscape. After a recent commission I found this tutorial for how to use it in the persons gallery. How elated I felt at seeing how it was done. I set about trying out the tutorial and found myself rather enamored with the whole process. It seemed like I finally found something worth trying. Yet...I find myself at odds. I wish to create things from my mind, but I've only worked off of other peoples work to practice. This brings up an odd thought. When is it 'copying' and when is it 'learning how to draw like that' or 'mimicry' for the sake of getting better at artistry? Are we all not copying, in some small way, the person before? The one teaching us? If we teach ourselves, are we still not inspired by our own past memories? I suppose what I'm getting at is: I don't want to be considered someone who 'steals' others works. That's not what I'm intending to do. What I AM doing recently is finding poses I like and uses it as a base to make what I wish out of it. I give credit to those I can find and only hope that they are flattered by me using their work in such a way. For, out of EVERYTHING out there, someone to consider YOUR art worth working from. Is that not a compliment? Or is not suppose to be taken as such? I suppose I can only keep going till I hit a roadblock or some rude person that considers that I'm only 'stealing'. Who knows for sure?