Hi, I wanted to design towels using images of famous musicians. My question is, if I use for instance an image of a famous musician that is no longer alive and I modify this image by creating my own artwork with it, would I still run the risk of being sued just because of the fact of using a celebrity image? Does it matter how much I change this image or if I draw it myself? I heard from other designers that if you change a certain percentage (let's say 20% of it) of an image, such as colors, shape or even adding other elements to it, you should be fine, is that true? As an example, I see pictures and paintings of Bob Marley all over the place... are these people getting permission to use that?
you may not create a derivitive work from a copyrighted image without the owners consent. What defines a derivitive work is up for speculation. Read the links in my sig on copyright law. there is some information there about image copyrights.
Without seeing what you're doing specifically, chances are that you would not have a derivative work under the definition--especially given that the commercial value of the towels would be due to the use of the copyrighted image and not your artwork (ask if you would still be able to sell the towels if the image wasn't included, in other words). There's lots of unlicensed use of celebrity photos out there, Bob Marley included.