Personally I would get in touch with the artist in question and ask if I can create a reproduction of his work using the program of my choice and ensure the artist that the final render will not be used on a commercial basis.

It is better to ensure that all is OK before proceeding. If it is not OK then you could always just use the experience for your own personel collection without release on the basis of satisfying your will to learn new ideas that you could use within your own personel renders. Afterall.. all artists have developed their skills by copying those that inspire them and then used what they have learned to enhance their own projects.