Photocropping your way to success

For me it kind of depends on the type of art the artist is trying to create. If they have the permissions to use said images, it is definitely more moral than just cropping someone else's art and blending it into their own work. Simply photo cropping an image alone doesn't seem right to me though. If you have the permissions to personalize and edit the art to your own style, I feel as if its not as bad as just cropping it in.

I mean, the biggest use of photo cropping in art for me is with Pokémon sprites. We have permissions to use and edit the official sprites, but its not like I'm just going to crop one Pokémon's head and slap it onto another's and call it art. I like to use multiple pieces and personal touches to form a sprite that looks brand new. Sometimes we can learn how to draw or sprite different types of anatomy by looking at other art and personalizing it. So all in all, I think it all depends on what you do with photo cropping that depends on whether or not it takes away from manually drawing something of your own.