Several parts combine into one character.

The character for "picture" is one of the most visually divergent across the three CJK regions. Traditional 繪 combines 糸 (silk thread) with 會 (to meet / gather). The original meaning was specifically embroidery and silk-pattern weaving — colored threads "meeting" on the fabric to form designs. From this textile origin, the meaning extended to painting and pictures generally. Three CJK regions then went three different visual directions: traditional Korea/Taiwan retains 繪, Japanese shinjitai simplified to 絵, and Mainland Chinese simplified to 绘. Place the three side by side and they look like entirely different characters, though all derive from the same etymology.

Korean reading "hoe." 繪畵 (hoehwa, painting / fine art), 繪本 (hoebon, picture book), 描繪 (myohoe, depiction). In Korean daily usage, the native word (geurim, picture) dominates conversational speech; 繪/회 appears mainly in formal art-historical and academic vocabulary. Beware the dense field of Korean homophones reading "hoe": 會 (meeting), 回 (return / time), 懷 (bosom / cherish), 繪 (picture) — same sound, four entirely different etymologies.

Mandarin huì, 4th tone (simplified 绘). 绘画 (huìhuà, painting / pictorial art), 描绘 (miáohuì, to depict / portray), 绘图 (huìtú, drawing / chart-making), 绘本 (huìběn, picture book — borrowed back from Japanese). Mandarin keeps 绘 in formal, written register; spoken Chinese uses 画 (huà) for everyday "draw / paint."

Japanese is where 絵 lives most everyday-ly. The Wu-period on-reading エ (e) — borrowed from the dialect of southern China around the 5th-6th centuries — dominates: 絵 (e, picture), 絵本 (ehon, picture book — universal in Japanese childhood), 絵描き (ekaki, painter / drawer), 絵文字 (emoji, "picture character" — and yes, this is the original Japanese word that English borrowed wholesale for the smiley/picture symbols on phones). The alternative on-reading カイ (kai) survives mainly in 絵画 (kaiga, painting — the formal art term). The expression 絵に描いた餅 (e ni kaita mochi, "a rice cake painted in a picture") means "a useless empty promise" — beautiful to look at, impossible to eat.

Memory aid: silk threads (糸) meeting (会) — the original embroidered pattern that became "picture."