Part of the fun in reading novels is being able to imagine each character’s appearance, but if you have problems visualizing certain literary creations, Brian Joseph Davis has got you covered.
Davis is an author by day, but he’s managed to find time in his schedule to produce a portrait series based on famous literary characters such as Aomame from Haruki Murakami’s ‘1Q84’ and Humbert Humbert from Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Lolita.’ Davis makes these portraits using police composite sketch software and descriptive passages of each character’s face. He then puts his creations, along with the novel excerpts, on his Tumblr page entitled ‘The Composites.’ Though the results are mostly eerie, they do provide visitors with insight as to what characters may look like.
Brian Joseph Davis is also the author of ‘Portable Altamont’ and a co-founder of Joyland, a website promoting regional short fiction.
What's Driving This Trend
- Character Portraits
- Using police composite sketch software and descriptive passages, there is an opportunity to create character portraits based on literary works.
- Visualizing Literary Characters
- There is a demand for visual representations of famous literary characters to aid in reader's imagination.
- Artistic Interpretations of Novels
- Creating portrait series based on famous literary characters provides an artistic way to engage with literature.
Who This Affects Most
- Publishing
- Publishing companies can explore incorporating character portraits in book design and marketing materials.
- Art and Illustration
- Artists and illustrators can offer their services to create character portraits for authors and readers.
- Technology and Software
- Developing specialized software for generating character portraits based on textual descriptions can cater to the needs of authors and readers.
