The reason they all jumped was the wording you used, I know the artist and I know what he can do. The wording you used was giving a tone of accusation instead of, "wait wait wait this may not get far because people might accuse you of stealing, how about you try to do this to set it apart..." I apologize for the assault, they are all really good friends of the artist, and the artist is a little defensive and insecure about people saying he copied when he bases it off a reference image.