It is mentioned in Tawdih that our scholars and others have stated that it is extremely forbidden to make the picture of an animal and it is from the enormities, whether one makes it and is used in a way that is degraded (i.e. cushion, pillow etc) or not (i.e. as a picture frame etc). It is extremely forbidden as it is like resembling the creation of Allah. It is equal in forbiddance, whether the picture is on a cloth, carpet, dinar, dirham, fils (coin), utensil or wall.
As for something which is not a picture of an animal, like the sea and the like, is not forbidden, whether it has a shadow of it or not.
This is what a group of scholars have said, from amongst them being Imam Malik, Sufyan, Abu Hanifa and others (May Allah be pleased with them all).
(Imam Badr al-Din Al-Ayni , Umdat al-Qari 22.70)
And Allah alone gives success.
- Ilyas Patel