I collected examples of visual metaphors on the pinked pinterest board below. I also found some great examples of visual metaphors here – Visual Metaphor Gallery – Research Gate  .

For this exercise I chose ‘Dreams of Romance’ – I started by making a visual mood board of illustrations and words I relate to romance. I decided to choose this topic as I thought it would be a challenge. I think that some of the other prompts would have been easier to communicate but I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone.

I did some initial sketches in my sketchbook and then made a few quick illustrations on procreate. I asked my family what they thought when trying to come up with images for romance. They also suggested flowers and a cupid.

After coming up with these ideas I started mocking up some thumbnails.

I wanted there to be a literal depiction of “Dreams of Romance” as I wanted the metaphor to be clear to the viewer. My initial ideas were one of a woman in bed literally ‘dreaming’ or a woman day dreaming. I thought that day dreaming was quite hard to get across – it read more as ‘thoughts’ or ‘thinking’ than dreaming.

For the actual dream I had one idea of a man (potential suitor) surrounded by all these stereotypical gifts of romance – the other idea was an engagement happening during sunset on a beach. I thought this was the most ‘obvious’ to the viewer.

After deciding on the dream I lined the whole drawing – I have the dream scene on a different layer so I can shade it separately – that is the reason it doesn’t appear in all of these screen caps, because I only had one line art layer visible at first. When lining I changed the girls mouth so that she was now smiling. I wanted it to be clear that it was a happy dream. It might be confusing to look at if she looks kind of sad and dreaming of an engagement.

I chose colours that would be considered quite romantic and feminine. Pastels and pinks. I thought the blue was a nice contrast with the pink but the pastel shade kept it quite delicate. I used these brushes as they resemble traditional media which creates a far more dreamy and romantic image. I wish I had thought of this when I did the initial line work.

I showed this drawing to my husband when I had finished it and asked him what he thought. He originally said dreams of engagement, or dreams of love. I will take that for what it is. The final illustration could have definitley been stronger. I am happy with the girl in the bed, I think the image looks nice and clean. Technically I’m not too pleased with the dream scene – however that being said I do think that the illustration gets across what I was trying to portray. I need to let go of all the finished pieces for these exercises having to be absolutely perfect when sometimes they are actually more about learning about concept and how to communicate a message or idea.