1. A computerized method of retrieving images from an image data base, comprising the steps of: receiving a depictive specification of one or more image characteristics of a search image, the specification including a type, a location, and a weight of the one or more image characteristics; executing a query for images in the image data base that are similar to the search image by: determining whether an image in the image data base has an image characteristic of the type and near the location of the one or more image characteristics of the search image; and determining similarity between the image and the search image according to the weight of the one or more image characteristics of the search image; accumulating a set of images determined to be similar to the search image; and providing the set of images ranked in an order according to a degree of similarity to the search image.