Anything he starts with off of the web is already altered from the original, so using that as a starting point isn't going to be stealing someones art, it is suggesting a direction in which to work, and he is working on something that sounds like it will pay homage to the form and the creature. He asked about a "style" to work within. You can only take ownership and copyright so far. Now if he had a carving and took a cast of it, that would be a theft of the shape, design, strokes, the rendering of the art.

SRS