Initial ideas

I think that for the mural i want to create a metaphorical piece on the subject of the art student or at least the moral obligations of an artist (in a broad sense of the term). I need to look at some of the style utilised popularly in political cartoons and i want to look further back into earlier examples of visual language and symbolism to get a historical grasp on the subject; movement's like the Pre-Raphaelites and Vanitas heavy with symbolic language.