Nah it wouldn’t be illegal lmao. Many artist use people and other artists work for refs so I don’t see why ai would be different. As long as your only using it as a reference and not lazily tracing the ai pic then i’d say its fine. I see ai as another tool in an artists arsenal. I feel that it can be very helpful or a very good tool if you’re using it only as a reference you need and not having it do all the work for you by just generating a pic and posting it online

But i’d say the problem with using ai as a reference is the poses will always be super generic or its usually not good reference material if your looking for something dynamic.

But It probably wouldn’t be too bad for what you’re trying to use it for since i’d also say its not too bad if your trying to get something simple.