Beautiful. Valid. Amazing!!

Never, and I mean NEVER, be afraid to take inspiration from someone or something else.  It does NOT make you seem uncreative or unoriginal.  It does NOT make you a copycat or a thief.  It does NOT mean you are less powerful to "create your own things". It does NOT mean you won't have your own individual style - it does NOT mean that your work just will look like someone else's.  It does not mean that all of the "you" has been taken out of it.  It does not mean that that work is ANY LESS VALUABLE than the work that didn't take inspiration from something else.  No matter how much you were inspired by one specific thing to do this particular work - this particular work is STILL YOUR WORK, not someone else's, even if it reminds you or others of the thing you took inspiration from.  Not everything has to have its own complete individual style that stands alone different from everything else in the universe.  Things can just be beautiful creations.  They are valid, good, and amazing.  In truth - EVERYTHING you see all around you has been inspired by something else.  Even the things you think are original are really just things inspired by a huge culmination of different things instead of mostly being inspired by one thing.  That's the only real difference!  And don't ever worry about copyrights and not being able to take ownership of your own characters when you do a fan-fiction.  The characters and the story and the artwork is YOURS, all YOURS!  Even if in the worst case scenario you find out that you cannot post that story publicly anymore under your name because of copyright issues, you can just change out the specific copyrighted things out for something else and KEEP YOUR STORY.  Because, it is YOUR STORY.    They are your characters, it is your story, it has your heart, and NO ONE CAN TAKE THEM FROM YOU.  Your work is safe.  And plus!  Copyright issues are very unlikely to happen!  Fan-fictions are made all the time and widely respected by people of all ages!  People love fan-fictions!  Fan-fictions are not a crutch to lean on, they are your OWN INCREDIBLE WORK!  The Sheer amount of genius that you put into your fan-fiction should never be dimmed down for ANY REASON! IT IS BRILLIANT!  And of course, never forget that even if you start out completely straight-out copying someone else's work - you KNOW you're a creative genius and even when you try to copy something exactly, you end up adding your own special sparkle to it that makes it yours!!  You tend to start of with the inspiration picture, and then inspiration starts flowing like a rainbow waterfall - the picture starts growing, evolving like a metamorphosis, veering away from the original inspiration, into your Very Own Creation - and often time that results in your Very Own Original Character!!  But even if it doesn't, never forget that THAT'S OKAY!!   Even if it is exactly a picture of someone else's character, there is still that sparkle to make it YOUR picture of someone else's character - and hey guess what?  That's YOUR WORK!  CONGRATULATIONS!!  YOU'RE AMAZING!!!