It’s complicated and messy.

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When I “express my idea or feeling through art” it’s mostly in the forms of stories that I illustrate. I don’t do “first degree metaphor illustration” to express a feel, and the idea of doing those just feels cringe and shallow to me (but I’m really more oriented towards storytelling art). Like a guy having a shadow hugging him because anxiety ? A tree and like the tree means life ? Idk to me it’s a bad case of “tries to be clever but the metaphor is kinda boring and overdone and shallow and obvious so actually it looks dumb and pretentious” to me. And I don’t want to do that kind of art that is explicitly metaphorical, I want to keep things grounded and the metaphor subtle. I also think I try to have something specific about my art, even if the feel can be general. A big strength of Taylor Swift lyrics is that she is really detailed with them, she doesn’t just talks about the vague concept of an ex, she talks about the specificities of that breakup and the feelings and it’s detailed. And I think it’s my issue with “metaphorical art”: when the only thing you got in your art is a feeling, no details about what lead there or the sense that it connects to an actual person it feels generic, limited, boring. Whereas when you got a story and you paint a specific moment of that story to express a feeling you or someone else has it looks like there’s stuff around it, that it actually exists outside the canvas, that it’s real and matters.

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Sorry I went on a tangent there lol, anyway back to the question:

For stories and “graphic elements to illustrate feelings”, the things I feel strongly about I also think a lot about. I connect new things I hear to it, and I instinctively surround myself with people and media who discuss this. I‘m building my “concept and image vocabulary” partly on them, and when I notice something in my art that connects to a concept, a metaphor side heard, or when a picture pops in my brain, I question myself on why it’s there and if it could be used to express something interesting. Right now I’m working on an illustration piece for a story (fantasy universe, gay couple, specifically in an alternative timeline where something terrible didn’t happen to them) but the way the piece is looking for now is giving me early queer cinema vibe (which was whimsical and appealing because escapism and real world acceptance wasn’t thought as a possibility) and “escapism in the face of adversity” “unreal” seems fitting in more than one way with that story, so I might keep that principe there utilize it more.

Also I rant a lot about stuff (dunno if you’ve noticed lol), be it non art concept or art itself. Ranting and seeking feedbacks on my rants helps me clarify and push ideas and feelings. This habit has built an “overthink stuff” muscle in my brain. And I think because of this muscle, ideas, connections and picture might come quicker to me as I create.

Also also, I follow some concepts and take inspiration from media I liked which expressed what I’m trying to. Circles are sympathetic, triangle are dangerous, square are stable. If your character is on the left side of your picture and facing to the left it evokes being stuck (same with the right side). Arrows lead the eyes. The lighting of this movie would work for the story of this scene, that comic book displays an apocalyptic world the way I want to. And I see how other artists used or broke rules to express something, and what effects their art actually has on me.

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TL;DR: I rant and seek discussions about a lot of thing I feel about, art related or not. I consume discussions on the stuff I care about, which helps me clarify and elaborate my feelings and ideas, and make them easier to put in my art. I follow art principles and the effect they have on people, as well as checking how other artists managed to express and make people feel x or y.