圖像的思想來源于圖像表象所表征的事物本身的意義,以及藝術家主觀因素的滲入。圖像的意義產生于圖像與觀眾的互動。圖像表象本身的規定性為圖像意義的產生提供基礎與依據,觀眾的闡釋使圖像的意義從潛在成為現實。與王弼的"得意忘象,得象忘言"不同,在圖像中,象終始是居于主導地位的,意需要通過象才能得到,觀眾得意之后無法"忘象"。藝術家的主觀因素滲入圖像是一種有意識的行為,表現在藝術家的觀察、構思、表現等階段。藝術家可以通過突出圖像所表現事物的文化內涵、適當地類型化、突出特定的語境等方法,突出圖像中的某些思想。圖像的表象與文字建構的形象在表達思想上存在一定的差異。這種差異表現在圖像表象無法表現非視覺性的生活現象、圖像無法通過其構建材料表達思想、和圖像表達的思想沒有文學形象那樣明確與清楚。

The inbuilt thought of images comes from the meaning of things represented by images and also from the initiation of artist’s subjectivity. The meaning of image emerges from the interaction between image and audience. The prescriptive nature of image’s presentation becomes the source to generate image’s meaning, while the interpretation of the audience actualizes the implicit meaning. In images, visuality is always dominant from which meaning is generated and the audience captures the meaning and keeps the visuality. The initiation of subjectivity into image is artists’ conscious action, as is reflected in their observation, conceptualization, and performance. Artists can foreground certain thoughts in images by highlighting the cultural connotation of the things represented, stylizing and specifying the contexts of the images. There is difference in the expression of thought between the presentation of images and the figurative representation constructed through language, and the difference can be described in three ways. First, the visuality of image is unable to represent non-visual phenomena in life. Secondly, image is unable to express thought through its materialitys. Thirdly, the thought presented by visual images is not as clear as that expressed by literary images.