One picture can represent a thousand words. It can evoke a waterfall of emotions that comes crashing down on the viewer or it can fill the individual with joy. Every image has a different meaning or perspective for every viewer, but the artist created that piece with one underlying meaning. The artist captured this meaning in his work to portray an idea or expression that he wants the viewer to see and understand. Just like an author writes an essay, short story, or poem, the artist creates the image with a purpose, a structure, for a certain audience, with a point of view and to express a tone. Therefore, reading an image is similar to reading a text or piece of work.

There are many similarities between the two forms of communication. With an image individuals can show an artistic side, by drawing the eye of the viewer into it. They want the persons viewing it to understand the point of view and why it was chosen, and what tone it describes to the on looker. The same goes for a text, the reader is expected to understand the point of view; where the author is coming from and the reason why they chose that certain view, and because of that point of view what tone the author was trying express. Both images and text use the same techniques to express an idea. But there are also differences between the two forms of communication. With an image the artist can use colors to evoke a feeling or two contrast things with in a picture or portrait, which an author cannot show as easily. An author can describe the colors or objects around but the rest is up to the reader to determine and piece it together in their mind what the author is trying to express. Another difference is also an artist trying to display a metaphor, metonymy, or symbolism. It’s hard for the artist to display these within their work, but out of these three the most frequent is metonymy. Artists like to substitute a part of something to represent a