Copyright/Painting Over-More confused than mad...

!Xephilias Jan 1, 2013

Hello. (I'm writing from a secondary account because the one person watched my other account)

A few days ago I submitted a piece of artwork which I had made for a job on the forums [link] (second picture down) [link]. I looked at the previous artist's work to try to figure out what the requester wanted. So mine ended up in the same pose with a similar background.

A little while after I submitted the piece, the original artist requested that I take my work down, while his friend said "you can blatantly see that this was copied". I changed my piece so they would leave me alone (I don't get many views and didn't want people to think I was a thief) and noted the artist, apologizing for the confusion and asking if it was alright now. When I changed it, the only things I changed were the pose and background, although his friend commented on the hidden face also (I believe).

So my question is, with a pose and background so generic and basic, can he actually claim that I copied his work? [link] This is the first time something like this has happened to me and I'm a bit curious about what to do.

I responded to his friend and asked the artist "What about my drawing made you feel that it was illegal?", but I haven't received a response yet.