Art O' Altocello

mostly Adam Driver

[artocello]

Strings McCrane #2

Adam Driver as Strings McCrane from HOLD ON TO ME DARLING, light washing over his slanted shoulders from the windows behind him, the soft waves of his collar length hair curling out from under his black cowboy hat, head tilted to his right, brow ever so faintly furrowed, gaze soft and distant down the length of the gleaming guitar cradled high against his chest, mouth set gently in a straight line, his scruffy chin tucked down a tad.

Photoshoots, as near as I can tell, are almost like acting gigs in and of themselves, it's just that the person you're playing is a more photogenic version of yourself, with the photographer as the director, coaxing the story out of you.

In this case, it kind of was an actual acting gig, in which Adam was playing Strings going through the photoshoot to promote his "Ain't No Time For Crying" tour, at least while the still camera was clicking away.

Here he is, gazing down the side of his guitar, a pensive look on his face. There's just the tiniest hint of a furrow to his brow, but his forehead is relaxed, and so are his cheeks. The rumples in his shirt on his left shoulder, as well as the view we have of the edge of the instrument's belly, tell us his left arm is up and extended out so his hand can hold the neck of the guitar.

I loved how soft the light was on Adam's face, for all that it's pouring so strongly over his shoulder, and the contrast of the light shining down on his left side, but being reflected up on his right, was another small delight.

He's not fully bearded like he was during the run of the play, it looks like he had maybe a couple of weeks of stubble at this point, so I'd guess  (and it is just a guess!) that they did this shoot in late May or early June.

The reference for this one was a screenshot, taken and edited by me, of a short video shared by Emilio Madrid on 14 Feb 2026, which documents the photoshoot that produced the images for the poster and merchandise for HOLD ON TO ME DARLING. It's a delightful 3 minutes, and a fun peek into yet another aspect of bringing a play to life.

About 25.5 hours for this one. I went into this thinking that, since I was using a screenshot, the camera blur would mean there wouldn't be as much skin texture visible in the reference, and I was very wrong!

[artocello]

Mills #7 (family)

Adam Driver as Mills from "65", penitent, the tangled tendrils of his hair shining with sweat, forehead deeply furrowed by brows quirked upward over beseeching eyes, cheeks scrawled with bloody scratches, the soft set of his mouth wreathed by whiskers, bearded chin tipped up with his gaze, the column of his neck framed by his blood-stained shirt.

Mills is kneeling, gazing up at Koa as she stands in front of him, an open, vulnerable expression on the face of this gruff, stoic man as he waits to know if she's chosen to forgive him.

By this point in the film, Mills and Koa had, despite their lack of a common language, developed an easier rapport, built upon their common experiences as they had struggled to reach the mountain. While the language barrier was still very real, they had begun to better understand and intuit the intent behind each other's unfamiliar words.

But when Koa finds the shattered cryo-stasis pods in the wreckage of the ship surrounding the escape pod, she realizes that Mills' promise to reunite her with her family had been a lie; he had known all along that her family wasn't waiting on the top of the mountain for her, that they had died in the crash.

Mind you, Mills clearly felt guilt about the lie from the very beginning, and had actually confessed the entire truth to Koa in a frustrated rush when she harangued him for giving up when the going got tough in the caverns. But their lack of shared language meant she couldn't understand him, leaving his confession thwarted and his conscience clouded, though at least he had the consolation of knowing he'd tried to tell her.

Angry and heartbroken by what she sees as a betrayal of the trust underpinning their relationship, Koa lashes out, yelling, hitting, and shoving a subdued Mills before slumping down, weeping as the realization that she'll never see her family again hits home.

Mills kneels in front of where she's huddled, and, using the few words of her language that he knows, quietly reveals that the girl in the holovids that Koa took from the ship, the ones he was so prickly about her playing, is his daughter. That the last time he'd seen Nevine alive, she had been mad at him too, and that he hadn't been there when she fell sick and died, making it clear that this is the crippling emotional wound he bears on his spirit— he feels his failed his daughter when she needed him most, and there would never be another chance for him to make that right with her.

He goes on to say, voice thick with unshed tears, "I need to get you home", and it's understood that this is his way of atoning for his inability to help Nevine; he couldn't save his own daughter, but he had resolved to do everything he could to save Koa, even if it meant lying about her family's survival to get her to brave the journey with him to the escape pod.

Braced for the rejection he feels certain to come, Mills actually flinches when Koa moves to hug him, but then, realizing she's chosen forgiveness, he surges up to carefully enfold her, whispering his apologies, for lying to her, for her loss.

The reference for this one was a screencap from "65", taken and edited by me. This scene was very dark, and I needed to do a lot of photoshop magic to get it to be light enough to see the details more clearly. The perils of painting a scene set at night on a prehistoric world, I suppose.

About 15 hours of work, give or take. Only 5 color overlays for this one, with three of them being different shades of blue. I had hoped to have this done by 10 Mar, since that was the 3rd anniversary of 65's theatrical release, but better late than never.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #151 (NYT Great Performers Dec 2019, behind-the-scenes)

A very blurry Adam, leaning forward, face turned to his left and tilted up just a tiny bit, the strong overhead sunlight shining on his forehead, slightly knitted brow, the wide wing of his cheekbone, proud prominence of his nose, corner of his lower lip and on the jut of his chin, his eyes, mouth, jawline and most of his neck shrouded in deep shade.

Adam's face has extraordinary contours even under bland lighting while he's sleek; add a strong directional light source and subtract a lot of his body fat and those contours become even more dramatic.

I had always wondered how Jack Davison had captured such extraordinary photos of Adam for the "Great Performers of 2019" cover and article that ran in the NYT on 14 Dec 2019. He used actual film, apparently, and played around with reflection, refraction, and distortion by using glass panes with some of the other actors featured.

No glass panes were used for Adam's photos; instead, the photographer chose to obscure his face with shadows, some cast by objects, but most cast by Adam's own features. I can always tell when a director is on the "Adam is hot" train with those of us in the Driver Hive, and it's equally clear when a photographer is too; in this case, I see it in how these photos celebrated Adam's features, rather than attempting to minimize them, even as Davison played a game of "how much of Adam's face can I hide before people can't easily recognize him".

The lighting is the antithesis of conventional portraiture lighting, which is soft, non-directional, and intended to eliminate deep shadows, averaging out unusually prominent features. Stark and unrelenting, this extremely directional light source unapologetically emphasizes the unique landscape of Adam's face, the prominences of his brow, nose, and cheekbone catching that light and casting deep shadows below them. And it turns out that light source, despite the deep black background behind him in the final photos, was none other than the sun, which looks to have been near it's zenith on a cloudless day.

A tiny clip from a behind-the-scenes peek at the process behind the photos in that article recently surfaced; in it, there's just a few frames of Adam, leaning forward, his elbows and forearms resting on his thighs, framed against the backdrop of that bright sky as a couple of men fuss with some equipment near by. Adam turns his head to look at them, and we get to see this.

It's very blurry, a product of both the fact that this is a frame from a motion camera and the focus of that camera (also a bit of the file size, too; it's not what I'd call 4k). But in a way, that lets us more easily appreciate the hills and hollows, crags and crevices, rumples and almost maybe dimples when not distracted by finer details. Despite how shaded his eyes are, it seems like he was squinting into the light; the lower lid of his left eye is pursed upward tightly, and his brows are knitted together just a bit. He's not frowning, but he's not smiling either, expression set in his "resting Hades face", which looks more even more severe given the austerity of his build at the time.

This would have been taken in late fall/early winter 2019, not long after Adam had done the shoot for Burberry Hero and played the sinewy shock-comic, Henry McHenry, in ANNETTE. Both of those projects called for him to be muscular but extraordinarily lean, and you can see how little subcutaneous fat he's carrying just by looking at the shaded hollows under the wide jut of his cheekbones. That lack of softness amplifies the already stern nature of Adam's rather forbidding non-expression.

Screenshot used for reference taken by adamdrivercentral from a short behind-the-scenes video clip of Jack Davison taking the photos for the New York Times Great Performers of 2019 article, which was shared by haste_nyc.If you'd like to know more about the techniques Mr Davison used to capture those photos, there's a great article about it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/14/reader-center/great-performers-jack-davison-photography.html">here</a>.

About 4 hours of work, but only because I made myself walk away. Blur is harder than you'd think! Don't ask how much of that time I spent on just his left eye, though I didn't have to fret much about skin textures and tiny details. Painted while listening to "The Unclouded Day", by Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch, on repeat.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #150 (Interview magazine, Nov 2016)

Adam, dripping wet in a dirty white tank-top, features blurred as he shakes his head, his hair flying up into a tangled halo and whipping across his face, water dotting the width of his shoulders and shining on the muscular planes of his chest.

You'd think he'd just look like a drowned rat, but somehow adding water makes Adam's smoulder even more intense.

For a while it was pretty common for photographers to get this man soaking wet during their shoots; just off the top of my head I can recall a lake, a swamp, several rainstorms, and at least two bath tubs. At some point they stopped doing the sexy edgy shoots and switched to staid Serious Actor ones, and it really has been our loss, though I'm sure Adam doesn't miss it one bit. Anyone who's ever had to try to escape the clinging embrace of a wet pair of jeans knows just how uncomfortable street clothes are when soaked.

This particular shoot had him doing just that; having been completely submerged while fully dressed in a filthy-looking bathtub, there's a series of photos of him as he strips off his sopping wet jeans, dries off, and puts himself back together. This moment was most likely immediately after he stepped out of the tub; in the full photo, which I cropped closely for Artist Reasons, you can see he's still wearing the jeans, so wet they're shining, while perched on a closed toilet.

He's whipping his head back and forth, tossing the tangled tendrils of his hair as he tries to shake the water off, like a dog after a bath; the speed with which he's moving means his hair and features are blurred, though the rest of him is in better focus. That tank top, transparent thanks to the water, reveals what very fine muscular form he was in at this point, having filmed THE LAST JEDI in the spring, and then LOGAN LUCKY a couple of months before this. Just look at the strong arch his wide shoulders make, the thick ropes of his trapezius muscles emphasizing the depth of those hollows above his collarbones, and the rumples of the muscle fiber bundles in his right deltoid, which is tensed as he counterbalances with his arm.

Photo used for reference taken by Steven Klein on 1 Nov 2016 for an article in Interview Magazine dated 28 Nov 2016.

About 12 hours of drawing time, give or take. It's taken me 5 years to be brave enough to try painting this one, so I'm pleased to have finally found the courage to brave the blur.

This is the 150th (!! [right? I can hardly believe it myself, and I painted all of them!]) portrait in a series that I started on a whim 5 years and 11 months ago; little did I know that first, sketchy, 1-ish hour exercise was to be the beginning of such a life changing venture. That, by pursuing a long term, in depth portrait study of my favorite actor, I would make some of the best friends I've ever had, become a published book cover artist AND a published writer, and end up finishing not just one but THREE marathons.

Thank you to every one of you who's ever resonated with these and let me know how they made you feel through comments and kudos, and, depending on the platform, respectful reposts and reblogs; that positive feedback loop of fandom joy makes the most incredible things possible.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #149 (Mishawaka, 5 Mar 2025)

Adam, light shining on the crown of his head and the tips of the waves of his hair as he glances down, gently knitted brow shading lowered eyes, light catching on the crest of his left cheekbone and running down the length of his nose, the soft tangle of his beard further shadowing his upper lip and tucked chin.

No date or location was provided for the photo I used as a reference for this portrait, but it was almost certainly taken during Adam's workshop blitz in his hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana on 5 Mar 2025, during which he was part of a three person panel discussing the art and business of acting at the Film, Television and Theater (FTT) at the University of Notre Dame, led a short workshop with kids at the Robinson Community Learning Center, visited with the theater students at his alma mater, Mishawaka High School, and then met with military veteran students at Notre Dame. This was most likely to have been taken during the panel for the FTT students, in the Philbin Studio Theatre at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

And THEN he got spotted at a local dive bar, probably while getting himself a well-earned beer (or cocktail!) after a long day of giving back to his childhood community. There were photos taken (and shared!) from every single one of those events (and the bar!), which makes this probably one of the best documented days we have of him in public.

And what a day it was! There was a lovely little write-up about everything Adam got up to, which you can find here, and though it does get the date of his visit wrong in the caption for every photo, that article makes it really clear that his intent was to try to help give those aspiring young actors the push they might need to pursue their dreams of working in the arts.

That sense of positive purpose comes through in his expression. He's serious but not unhappy or angry; there's a hint of a pinch of concentration to the tiny furrow of Adam's brow, and there's the suggestion of a smile to the set of his mouth. He's not dimpling, but his lower cheek is catching the light, showing there's a bit of a swell to the skin, which could be from the muscles tensing just before an actual smile breaks out.

Photo used for reference shared by walkr.img.

About 17 hours of work. It'll be quick, I told myself. No need to worry about the tiny details, I told myself. I should know better by now. But I did manage to finish it just before the end of the year!

[artocello]

"Paterson #4 (...so far)"

Adam Driver as the sweet, slender poet, Paterson, in Jim Jarmusch's beautifully quiet movie of the same name, his right side brightly limned in autumnal morning light, eyes pursed with amusement, a small smile curving his lips, revealing a peek of teeth, and hinting at the rumples of his dimples, his jacket and shirt open just enough to show the collar of his t-shirt.

One of the themes I've noticed upon repeated re-watch of this movie is "reflection", both in terms of Paterson's musings while composing his poetry, but also in the world around him. There is a mirror in nearly every interior scene, and Paterson's face is almost always lit by light being reflected on to him, rather than direct light.

This scene followed that rule, though the light reflected on his face in this scene was dimmer than usual, perhaps echoing his emotional state, and/or the somber tone of the conversation he's having.

Still grieving the destruction of his poetry journal by the family dog, Marvin, and, by extension, his concept of himself as a poet, Paterson heads out for a walk, where he runs into Everett, who had been having a crisis of his own at the bar two nights previously. Paterson had intervened, only to discover the gun that Everett was threatening to shoot himself with was, in fact, a toy gun that shoots foam darts. Everett apologizes for his actions, saying, "I kinda lost myself". Noticing how distracted Paterson is, Everett takes a moment to check in on how he's doing, saying he looks a little low. Despite his obvious distress, Paterson gently reassures him that's he's OK, clearly trying not to burden someone who is also struggling.

In an attempt to lighten the mood a bit, Everett replies with what is supposed to be a hopeful adage about how life goes on: "the sun still rises every morning, and sets every evening; there's always another day". Paterson takes it in, clearly pondering the phrase, and then his face lights up, eyes darting, a small, shy smile blooming on his face as he leans forward a tiny bit and carefully says his slow but sly reply, "… so far."

It's the first tiny bit of levity he's managed since learning of the loss of his poems, and it's clear that, as dark a bit of humor as it is, it helps ease his anguish.

Screen cap used for reference was taken from a scene in PATERSON, and edited by me.

About 17 hours of work, give or take. Painting a back lit portrait like this is a special kind of challenge; the edge of him is so very bright it makes the rest of him look that much darker by comparison. I ended up brightening the reference a LOT, just so his face wasn't a dark blot against the light wash of the background. But I love the way the light catches in the tiny hairs behind his ear and at the nape of his neck, and the way it limns the edge of his ear, jaw, neck, and the rumples in the collar of his jacket. It's not as clear in monochrome, but some of the lightness of his ear is actually from the light shining through the translucent cartilage from the back. There's not as much fine detail in this painting, the joy and woe of a screen cap taken from a streamed movie, but one of the fun tiny details I did find while painting the left edge of his face is that this angle reveals the line of one of his dimples, almost making a bracket shape where the line of his cheek dips in before abruptly continuing downward.

[artocello]

someone who has hope

Adam Driver as Ben Solo, vividly lit in contrasting cool blues, warm oranges, and bright yellows, hair in damp spiky tendrils, brow gently knitted above a hopeful, distant gaze, mouth set softly, chin lifted in gentle defiance above a confident chest, strong shoulders held wide.

There are certain fandom moments that get burned vividly into your memory; you will always remember where you were when you first heard the news. In the case of THE HUNT FOR BEN SOLO, I was just getting home from my weekly grocery run on 20 Oct 2025 when my phone started to blow up with notifications from a dear friend of mine. I parked the car, opened up the article she had linked for me, and learned that Adam Driver, bless him, is definitely still Ben Solo's number one fan.

To say that I ran the gamut of emotions that day is an understatement. Shock, vindication, joy, and such an intense grief.

Shock, that Adam would talk about this project and why it was dead with such frankness. He never, EVER, says anything even the slightest bit critical about anyone he works with. At most he'll hint at less than perfect past experiences, but never with any identifying details. I was gobsmacked that he dropped all those names.

Vindication, for my firm belief that Adam would play Ben again in a heartbeat, that all Lucasfilm had to do was give him a good script and director. He'd said as much in an interview, without naming any specific franchise. Learning that I was right when I thought that the reason for his vagueness and relative radio silence on the subject was not due to a lack of interest, but rather it's opposite; he was bound so tightly by an NDA that he didn't dare breathe a word of his passion project to the public.

Joy, to know that Kathleen Kennedy had reached out to Adam. Joy that he cared so much that he spent two years working on how to bring Ben back, that he basically wrote his own fix-it fic concept, and then worked to find the best people to help him bring those ideas to fruition.

And grief, such intense grief, to know just how close we were to getting what we'd hoped for, only to have all that hard work, careful thought, and preparation dismissed at the last possible minute by close-minded executives playing corporate politics.

It really was a lot like finally meeting Ben Solo, only to lose him less than 10 minutes later, all over again.

But despite that grief, I also, weirdly, feel hope.

Officially, THE HUNT FOR BEN SOLO is dead; that's why Adam and Steven Soderbergh can talk about it. But there's a completed script, purchased by Lucasflim, that was fully greenlit, with a tentative schedule and everything; while they'll need to go back to the drawing board to reset the timeline for shooting, a huge amount of the legwork is already done. And we know Adam wants to be a part of making it.

After 10 plus years as an a-list actor, Adam is no stranger to the media game; he knew that he was dropping a bomb with that interview. This was not a casual anecdote, shared lightly, without consideration for the consequences.

It may be he simply wanted to set the record straight, to be sure the world knows how much that character meant to him.

But I'm choosing to believe that this was also his way of passing the torch to us, knowing just how passionate SW fans can be. That he was hoping we'd take it up, and use the power of public pressure to do what he could not while bound to an NDA's silence. He's given this his best shot, and failed, and now it our turn to try.

So I picked up my stylus and made the first Ben Solo art I've made in years. I chose to modify a portrait I'd already done, one that already called Ben to mind because of the Byronic, yearning, hopeful essence of it.

I was inspired by Adam's thoughts in the behind-the-scenes interview he gave about developing Ben's character, and how he was different from Kylo Ren; asking the question, "Who is Ben, then?" to which his answer was, "Someone who has hope."

Photo used for reference was taken by Mario Sorrenti in mid-September 2019 for the 2024 Burberry Hero fragrance campaign.

I'd tell you how long it took if I actually knew. The base painting I started with was 32.5 hours of work, and I went from there. The idea hit me sometime after dinner, and I ended up working on it until 2:30am, despite fighting a terrible cold. I knew what I wanted to see, but it took me hours to figure out how to get where I wanted to go; changing the background and the lighting on his face, adding the sweater, and tweaking color gradient maps (let's hear it for layer masks), and I didn't think to take work in progress shots because honestly this kind of progress is extremely non-linear. The colors I chose for those maps are a reference both to the last time we saw Ben, in that cold, grim cathedral on Exegol, contrasted with the bright warmth of a new day, hope and light and life. Also I just really love a good complementary color scheme.

A last thought before I go; this is being posted on 19 Nov 2025, which marks Adam's 42nd birthday. It's my sincerest wish that this day, when he turns the age of the answer to life, the universe, and everything, be exactly how he wants it to be, however that looks for him, and that this next year traveling around the sun brings him all the best of everything that it can. Thank you, Adam, for telling us about your no-longer-secret passion project. Thank you for giving us a solid reason to hope that we might see Ben Solo again soon, if only we can convince The Powers That Be to reconsider their myopic decision. Ben Solo LIVES, let the hunt for him begin, and may the Force be with us all.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #148 (US Open, 5 Sep 2025)

A bearded and bespectacled Adam, eyes and shoulders slanted as he leans to his left, wedding ring winking on his finger and watch glinting on his wrist as he lifts his hand to partially hide the wide smile crinkling his crow's feet and carving the furrows of his dimples as it reveals his perfectly imperfect teeth.

This last year has seen Adam at a variety of different sporting events, from a Brooklyn Nets basketball game, to a NY Mets baseball game, and, most recently, a US Open tennis match. The first two were father-son outings, but this last one looked like it was something of a date night for him with Joanne.

Adam is leaning over in his seat, his elbow on the arm rest, the very picture of someone actively engaged with a funny anecdote. His entire torso is tilted, leaning toward the person speaking, amusement lighting up his face. His forehead is entirely relaxed, brow unlined, lower eyelids pursed upward and curving his eyes into happy crescents nestled in a cheerful maze of crinkles, fine creases fanning out over the swell of his cheekbones. His toothy smile is wide enough that there's the tiniest sliver of his molar showing, and it's begun to rumple his secondary dimple, which springs from the corner of his beard and parallels the whiskers along his jawline before arcing it way up toward that singular mole on the crest of his cheekbone.

It's not at all unusual for Adam to be bearded between roles, he seems to prefer being bewhiskered if given the option, but he nearly always keeps it tidily trimmed into his trademark Van Dyke. So it was a little bit of a surprise to see him at this event sporting this sparse scrungly jungle along his jawline in addition to the more robust tangle on his chin. I wondered, based on the fact that the only other times I can recall him growing that part of his beard out were for specific characters (once for Rick in TRACKS, and again for Fransisco Garupe in SILENCE), if that were the case again. And now that we know about his role as John Chapman in ALONE AT DAWN, which he's filming in Hungary as I write this, I think it's safe to say that it probably was.

Photo used for reference taken on 5 Sep 2025 at the US Open by an uncredited photographer for XNY/Star Max.

About 38 hours of painting time. I was thinking this would go much quicker, but I discovered a lot of beautiful texture in that shirt of his, and then got more than a little lost rendering the tiny details on his face. And how much do I love this shorter haircut he's been sporting, that gives us such a sweet peek of his ears? So much.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #147 (HOTMD curtain call, 16 Oct 2024)

Adam, hair in gently disheveled disarray, tear-dampened happy gaze looking leftward, a deeply satisfied smile tugging his mustachioed mouth wide and tight, crinkling the corners of his eyes and rumpling his dimples, the proud lift of his chest and slight tuck of his bearded chin carving a few furrows into the gentle twist of his neck, the unbuttoned collar of his shirt revealing the strong column of his throat and a peek of his collar bone under the tangle of Strings' necklaces.

It's curtain call on opening night and Adam is basking in the warm applause of the audience, eyes still a bit awash from his closing moments as Strings McCrane in "Hold On To Me Darling". His hair is showing the signs of having been flopped forward by the sincere depth of his bows, and then being flipped up and pushed back haphazardly by the fingers of Adam's right hand running through it in that gesture we all know so well, leaving a halo of flyaways and a stray lock curling forward over his left cheekbone instead of back over his ear.

There may be tears misting his eyes, but Adam is clearly happy; that smile is so wide it's pulling at the corners of his nose, widening the base and curving the tip downward a bit. He's preening under the praise being offered up by the audience, with his chin tucked a little, sternum lifted, and shoulders down; clearly he's proud of what he considers a job well done. There's a hint of exhaustion in the slant of his eyelids, but that's to be expected given that his character is in every scene of a play that ran for three hours with one intermission.

What I find so wonderful and remarkable about this moment, and the reason I chose to paint it, is how at ease he is with accepting the enthusiastic approval of the audience. In any other setting, including at the stage door, Adam accepts praise graciously but awkwardly at best; he has a tendency to deflect, diminish, or otherwise demur if given half a chance, physically rocking back or folding inward as he murmurs his sincere thank-you's.

But not during the bows! You can tell he isn't discomfited at all by the intensity of the standing ovation being given; he's standing proud, completely grounded, centered, serene, and soaking up the applause like a garden under a gentle rain.

Photo used for reference taken during the curtain call for "Hold On To Me Darling" at the Lucille Lortel Theater, by an unknown to me photographer on an unknown date, but based on other very similar photos it was almost certainly taken by John Lamperski (or someone standing immediately next to him) on 16 Oct 2024, which was the official opening night for the play.

About 25 hours of painting time for this one. I got a little lost in all the curls of his beard and the lovely texture of his neck; je ne pas regrette rien. This was painted while listening to Erik Satie's Gymnopédies & Gnossiennes, played by Stéphane Blet, on a continuous loop.

[artocello]

Jeff #1

Adam Driver as Jeff in "Father Mother Sister Brother", light shining on raven waves revealing a sweet peek of his right ear, face flushed, brows knitted with concern, eyes slanted with worry behind his wire-rimmed glasses, the proud prow of his nose curving to lips pursed around a fretful question, chin clean-shaven but shadowed by imminent stubble.

We've met him for all of maybe 30 seconds total, and I can already tell I'm going to love Jeff to bits.

Adam plays his part during the first triptych in Jim Jarmusch's new film, "Father Mother Sister Brother", where a brother, Jeff, and sister go to visit their "hermetic father" in rural New Jersey. From what we see in the teaser trailer, he's a serious fellow, literally buttoned down, with the points of his shirt tucked neatly into the wine colored sweater he's wearing under a checked blue blazer, and though the top button of his shirt is left undone, it's left very close to it's buttonhole. There's only one moment in the trailer when he doesn't have that worried furrow in his brow, and it's when a laugh is startled out of him by his father suggesting that they "toast their tea to family relations".

This moment happens immediately after, as he asks, worriedly, "CAN we toast with tea?", to his sister's dryly incredulous, "Really?", and his father's amused chuckle, implying that this kind of fretting over small details is an all too common occurrence with Jeff. He's adorably flustered; in addition to the worried furrow in his brow there's a flush of pink that goes from his neck all the way up to his hairline, staining his ears, lips, tip of his nose, and even the inner corners of his brows especially vividly.

The overall impression I was left with is that Jeff is an anxious, compacted marshmallow; so very soft, concerned about his dad's wellbeing, and the only reason he'd be hard at all is because of just how tightly wound his anxiety makes him.

I wonder what special keepsake Adam kept as a reminder of his time as Jeff. I do hope it was his glasses. Or maybe the mug?

Photo used for reference was a screencap of the trailer for "Father Mother Sister Brother" taken and edited by myself. Favorite details I rendered along the way, aside from that adorable furrow in his brow, include the fine line etched by time and smiles where his dimple would rumple, the rather impressive ridge that his chin scar makes (he must have split his skin to the bone when he got that one), along with being amazed, yet again, with just how extraordinarily full and pink his lips are. And, of course, it was a special delight to get to paint him in glasses.

About 17-ish hours of work. I'll admit that once I started working on the color overlays I completely stopped tracking the time. It took a couple of tries to get the colors right, but I really wanted to have this one be in color so that we could appreciate the blush staining his poor flustered face. I added more pink to his lips at least three times!

Painted while listening to 'The Day The Angels Cried' by Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #146 (somewhere in LA, 11 Aug 2025)

Adam, limned in light, face turned and tilted to his right, hair shorn short on the back and sides to reveal the full shell of his left ear, the undersides of his brows and eyelids crinkle-crimped, smile revealing his endearingly crooked teeth, mouth framed by the soft brush of his beard and bracketed by his dimples, his black shirt open to the third button, revealing the strong column of his neck encircled by a fine chain with a small pendant lying in the hollow of his throat.

It's a small miracle that we got this glimpse of Adam, dressed as his character Zach in Chris Rock's tentatively titled movie, "Misty Green". Rock ran a very tight, fairly leak-proof shooting ship, somehow managing to keep the paparazzi away from their locations, as well as the crew from sharing too much of what was going on.

One very discreet exception was the lovely Nelson George, who consistently shared tiny video snippets expressing his excitement and enthusiasm for the goings-on of the day. One such video, with Nelson talking about how they'd been doing night-shoots for 3 days straight, had Adam and Chris having a quiet conversation out of frame, with Adam's distinctive laugh welling up over the murmur.

The other, less discreet, exception was Busta Rhymes, who was tickled pink to get to shake hands with a similarly pleased-looking Adam, and who couldn't help sharing the moment with the world. Thus was the grainy, oddly lit, jaggy and pretty potato reference for this painting born.

It's so potato, in fact, that there's been a lively debate about whether this Very Short Haircut is, indeed, his very own hair, shorn the shortest we've seen for nearly 15 years, or a wig. Given that Adam's "wig guy" Alexis seems to still be in Barcelona, and that his last character— Gary, in "Paper Tiger"— had hair only a couple of inches longer, I'm betting that he really did cut it.

But it seems we'll have to wait for that confirmation, if it ever comes.

As I'm writing this, we are hoping against hope that Adam will appear on the red carpet at the 2025 Venice Film Festival for the premiere of "Father Mother Sister Brother"; the official celebrity arrival sheet doesn't have him listed at all, and he was also not mentioned, or present, at press this morning, and, most tellingly of all, akgroomer hasn't been sharing travel photos. I don't think he's going to show.

It's a shame, we'd have loved to see what look he's sporting now (goatee, clean-shaven, or stubble?  My bet was on several days of stubble), and to see him push the bounds of fashion with yet another black tux (would he have had black buttons on the shirt again?) and be so cool in his shades that he's practically wisping with steam, like dry ice.

The decision by the Cannes Film Festival to not to pick up FMSB meant that we missed our hoped for feast this May. The announcement of FMSB being premiered at Venice meant we tightened our belts as we nibbled eagerly at the surprisingly generous crumbs given to us by the occasionally overly aggressive pap presence at the sets for "Paper Tiger", but what we were really looking forward was the main course we hoped to be served today.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the Rats are starving.

But, with the wrap of his second film of the summer only three days ago, as well as that film requiring him to be away from home for most of the month, school starting up for his older child next week, and the festival well attended by the other cast members, Adam seems to have made the very reasonable decision to sit this one out, choosing instead to spend the time with his family at home.

An apt choice for a movie about the awkward estrangement that can develop between parents and their children.

It's a good time to tap the sign which reads, "Actors don't owe us public appearances", and to practice releasing our sense of entitlement. Adam doesn't get paid to do promotion, and time spent with his children while they're small is an ephemeral coin all too easily frittered away. 

There will be other crumbs to tide us over. We got our first glimpses of him as Jeff in the FMSB trailer yesterday; given that it's the centerpiece of this year's NYFF there's a chance we might get to see him on that red carpet in October, or, if we're really lucky. maybe even a little bit of late night show promotion (this would be a great year to give him his SNL 5-timers robe, Lorne!). And there's a good chance we'll get tidbits while he's filming for "The Dealer" this fall, since it's set in NYC. We've gone through longer, leaner times before.

And so, in the meantime, even though the Rats are starving, the potato will do.

Bon appétit!

Photo used for reference was taken behind the scenes of shooting "Misty Green", somewhere in LA, by Busta Rhymes on 11 Aug 2025.

About 17 hours of painting time. There's two versions, one is sepia monochrome, and the other is what I've dubbed "sodium lamp" since it reminds me of the yellow glow of the streetlights of my childhood. Painting from a reference this oddly lit, and low quality as a result, was a fun challenge, and I am always fascinated by what details on his face catch the digital attention of the camera. Many of what are normally his more prominent moles are hidden by the pose and the angle of the lighting, but the one right in front of his left ear stands out, as well as several of his neckles. It'll be interesting to see if the hard shine on his hair is due to the camera's struggles or a truly staggering amount of hair gel.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #145 (Venice FF 2023)

Adam, face framed by the waves of his collar-length mane, peering upward, forehead furrowed by the beseeching quirk of his brows, the creases of his crow's feet gently crimping the corners of his eyes, lower lids pursed, a fine webbing of quiescent crinkles fanning over the swell of his cheekbones, the aquiline arch of his nose leading down to neatly trimmed whiskers framing a gently set mouth, chin tipped upward to reveal the soft brush of his beard ruffling down the strong column of his throat.

Adam in Venice is always a vision, but he was especially gorgeous this day.  There he was, on the red carpet in front of the theater, dapper in his tux and neatly knotted bow tie, the sunglasses he'd been wearing were tucked into his coat pocket but had left a faint impression on the bridge of his nose, and his beard trimmed more neatly than I'd ever seen.

Mostly Adam's whiskers seem to somehow leap from rather long stubble straight into a somewhat scraggly beard, but he'd clearly made an extra effort to have his facial hair especially tidy that day, and with his chin tipped upwards we get an extra good look at how that better-tended-than-usual-beard ruffles down his throat. I am especially amused by that single rogue silver hair on the left corner of his chin which somehow escaped being trimmed as short as the rest of it's brothers.

But it's an unusual choice, even for someone like Adam, who is known for unusual choices, to look up over the heads of all of the photographers vying for your attention. I wonder what he was gazing at, and where his thoughts were taking him.

It's a wistful expression, but not an unhappy one; his brows are quirked upwards enough to tug a tiny wrinkle into the upper lid of his left eye and dig those furrows into his brow, but something about the softness of his mouth and the forthright but relaxed  set to his shoulders leaves me with the feeling that perhaps he was just quietly taking a moment, in the midst of the chaos, to appreciate the extraordinary gift of being there. It's not every day— or, for that matter, every life!— when you get stand on the red carpet in front of the main theater of the Venice Film Festival as the lead actor in a movie directed by someone you idolized as a kid.

Even if you famously aren't all that fond of red carpets.

Photo used for reference taken by the_italian_reve during the red carpet for the premiere of "Ferrari" on 31 Aug 2023 at the Venice Film Festival.

About 22.5 hours of painting time. I had intended for this to be a quicker, brushier, less tightly controlled portrait, but the details, like the curve of his mustache hairs where they spring up and out of his upper lip, were just too delicious, and I happily fell, nay, I leapt, headlong down the rabbit hole pursuing them.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #144 (sweeping the clouds away)

Adam, silver hairs sparkling in collar-length curls haloed by fine flyaways, eyes curved into joyful crinkled crescents, crow's feet fanning from the corners and over the crest of his cheeks, dimples rumpled by the depth of his delighted smile, upper lip stretched taut above endearingly crooked teeth, mouth and chin wreathed in the soft bristles of his short beard.

Adam had just officially met some of Sesame Street's most iconic muppets— Count von Count, Ernie, Abby, and Grover— and was clearly having a "pinch me" moment. A short video clip of the moments just before this one shows he'd done the thing that absolutely every actor who's ever worked with a Muppet talks about; as he first walked up, he greeted the actors, but as soon as their Muppets turned to face him he began to talk directly to the characters, captured by their gentle magic, forgetting entirely about the humans holding them.

Most of the photos are of Adam and his wife Joanne grinning as they gaze down at Abby and Count, clearly taking every chance they could get to chat with them in the short time allowed. In the few photos where he was able to tear his eyes away and up toward the camera, he's wearing a slightly vacant around the eyes star-struck grin that echoes the ones so many of us wore when we had the chance to see him at the stage door of "Hold On To Me Darling" last fall; the kind of smile you wear when there's an "error 404, page not found" message where your brain should be because every coherent thought has leaked out of your ears whilst your inner child is twirling in gleeful circles in your mind, screaming with delight because of who you've just gotten to meet.

This moment came just before he and Joanne needed to say their goodbyes. By this time Adam's smile was a little more focused; the shock of being close enough to touch and getting to say a personal greeting to several icons from his childhood was clearly wearing off a little bit, letting the depth of his joy bloom. His smile is so broad that there are horizontal wrinkles in the center of his upper lip from the strain, and you can see not one, but TWO molars in the left side of his mouth; that pull is also affecting the shape of his nose, widening the stance of his nostrils and pulling the tip down ever so slightly, curving the bridge of his nose just a little bit. And how much do I love that his eyes just about disappear into those crinkly crescents when he's this happy? So much.

Here's hoping he gets the chance to be in a Muppet movie in the not so distant future!

Photo used for reference taken by Charles Sykes on 28 May 2025 at the Sesame Workshop Gala in NYC. Title taken from the lyrics to the Sesame Street theme song, which goes, "Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet, can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street".

About 52 hours of work. It's always astonishing to me just how long it can take to render the fine details of skin texture; in this case I spent a bit more than 20 hours on them.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #143 (no sleep til brooklyn)

Adam, tendrils of hair curling out from under his baseball hat and twining around his ears, gaze soft, eyes curving into happy crescents, cheeks rumpled by dimples, lips pressed together and pulled wide by his smile, his upper lip and chin stippled by stubble.

Bundled up for a long distance road trip in his rain coveralls, baseball hat, camelbak water reservoir, and his helmet (held bashfully behind him), Adam had stopped at a motorcycle dealer and repair shop in Pennsylvania to get a bit of help. Apparently the throttle on his Road Glide ST wasn't working properly, but the shop was able to get it fixed up and get him back on the road home to Brooklyn. At some point he took a moment to have his photo taken with an employee, which was then promptly shared on facebook, much to the surprise and delight of the Driver Hive.

Adam looks like he's quietly fizzing with happiness, his smile soft but sincere, crinkled and furrowed around the edges. He's relatively clean-shaven for the first time in what might have been nearly a year (the last time I could verify he didn't have a beard was in May of 2024, at Cannes), but his silver-sparked stubble is long enough that it looks like it had maybe been a couple of days since he'd last shaved, which always makes the pretty epic scar on the right corner of his chin especially noticeable. He's standing with his right shoulder higher and closer to the camera, the lowered left shoulder hidden by his torso, and is turning his head to the right and dipping his chin just a touch; there's a sharp line on the right side of his jaw that marks where the rain gear is gently pinned by his tucked chin. I love the riot of curls gleefully escaping from under the baseball cap, including the one tiny tendril I found hiding in the shadows on his forehead. The lighting in this one was a little unusual, with just his right cheek, tip of his nose, and chin being the best lit by a mix of the shop's overhead lighting and what I suspect was a wall of windows to his right, as well as reflected light gleaming on the underside and left side of the tip of his nose and along the edge of his left cheek, but the rest being shaded by his hat and the tilt of his head.

Photo used for reference taken and shared by Roundhouse Harley-Davidson in Duncansville, Pennsylvania on 3 May 2025.

About 8 hours of work on this one, it was such a sweetly potato reference that there weren't many fine details to render. 

[artocello]

Adam Driver #142 (HOTMD cast party)

Adam, caught running his right hand through his hair, head tilted and eyes soft as he looks down and to his left, a smile gently rumpling his dimples, bearded lips parted to reveal a peek of teeth, the taut tendon of his neck pulling at the collar of his shirt.

It was opening night for "Hold On To Me Darling", and Adam was deep in conversation with another person at the cast party celebrating that first official show. His outfit, a lightweight white silk sweater under a black blazer, looks classy but comfortable, literally less buttoned up than his usual choice of a collared dress shirt. I have no idea who he was speaking to, or what they were talking about, but I'd have to hazard that he was enjoying himself; absolutely everything about his body language is calm and engaged, and his expression looks nearly as soft as the knit of that sweater.

His forehead is unfurrowed, brow unknitted, the worry lines worn by time gently evident but not actively engaged. His eyes are hooded by relaxed upper lids, and the muscles just below are pursed with good humor, his crow's feet crinkling at the crest of his cheekbones, dimples bracketing the gentle smile crooking the corners of his mouth. I have to say that is the fullest I think I've ever seen his lower lip look, I must have checked to be sure I was rendering that faithfully at least a dozen times.

Photo used for reference was taken by Emilio Madrid at the cast party after the opening night performance of "Hold On To Me Darling" on 16 Oct 2024. Despite being insanely high resolution, it was also very blurry, and I had to fight against the urge to too faithfully reproduce what looks like a bit of filtering applied by the photographer to claw back some of the detail lost to the blur.

About 11.5 hours of painting time. I probably could have leaned into the softness of it all a bit more.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #141 (Burberry Hero 4.0)

Adam, caught in a contemplative moment, right shoulder dipped down as his face is tipped up and to his left, brow gently knitted over a distant gaze as he searches for the words to express his thoughts, mouth pursed, his lips and chin wreathed by the soft brush of his beard, the strong column of his neck framed by the curls of his hair kissing the open collar of his shirt.

In an ironic twist, Adam was musing on how heroism plays a role in acting, having just declared that "acting is doing something and not worrying about how it looks ... you have to risk being unattractive and ugly", when he paused to gather his thoughts for a fraction of a second while holding this unabashedly beautiful pose. 

It's the kind of pose that sang it's siren contrapposto song to so many renaissance painters, the tilt of his shoulders and tip of his head leading our eyes across the page and up to his gaze. The look in his eyes is soft as he mulls over his phrasing, with his right eye narrowed just a smidge more than the left, his lower eyelid tensed upward near the inner corner just a tiny bit. His mouth is pursed around the thought, his lips crinkled as he rounds them to speak. He's not smiling, but you can see where his dimple would furrow his cheek if he were, his skin holding the memory of the rumple, a fine crease marking the groove. Some of that is age carving it's marks upon his face, but I think it's more a result of how lean he was when this was filmed; we saw a lot of that fold on his cheek in photos of him from fall 2019, but when he's more sleek, like at the 2023 Venice FF 4 years later, it's much less prominent. 

Many of the moles and freckles on the crest of his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose are lost to video blur and the bright shine of the light on his face, but the angle of that light is gentler on his throat, revealing a plethora of details to appreciate. And let's be honest, this is as much a portrait of his neck as it is of his face. The speckled spangle of moles, that deep hollow above his clavicle, the sinuous trace of a vein along the side of the taut line of his sternocleidomastoid muscle, the twining valley of what might be a scar just under his Adam's apple, and the white line of another a bit more than one of his finger's widths below that, as well as the skin texture a neck has with all it's folds and furrows.

The reference for this one was a screenshot of an actual blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in the short video (you'll find it at 0:52, if you're curious) that Adam filmed as part of the promotion for Burberry Hero's "Intense" parfum, which was released in March 2025.

About 15.5 hours of painting time. I switched overlays at the last possible moment and agonized over that for a little while, but I like this one just a tiny bit better.

[artocello]

Adam Driver #140 (Cannes 2024)

Adam, resplendent in his gleaming white tux, artfully tousled silver shot waves of hair haloed by fine flyaways, forehead unfurrowed, brow faintly knit over eyes glancing to his left with keen attention, the firm press of his inward rolled lips rumpling his chin, the turn of his head carving deep folds into his neck.

Most of the photos from Cannes 2024 show an unusually jolly Adam, joking with his costars with a broad smile on his face and actually waving amiable greetings to the walls of photographers lining the sides of the red carpet. He was fairly beaming with bonhomie, a departure from our more typically reticent relentless hillock, and it was lovely to get to see him so relaxed and having such a good time while looking like an actual prince on his wedding day in that stunning white tux.

This was a quieter moment, a little eddy in the swirling spectacle of the cast's grand procession to the premiere, and Adam's expression is one of watchful waiting; his gaze is alert but unworried, focused on something or someone at a bit of a distance from him, and it feels almost like he's looking for a cue. His expression is mostly carefully blank, with the exception of his mouth, which has his lips rolled together in what the Driver Hive has collectively dubbed, "The Mouth Thing."

It's a distinctive tic of his, much like stroking the underside of his chin with the backs of his fingers when he's bearded, or the way he'll touch his lips with the tips of his fingers when searching for a word or phrase, and I'm always delighted when someone manages to get a good photo of him doing it.

Photo used for reference taken by an unknown to me photographer at the red carpet for the premiere of "Megalopolis" at the Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2024. Pangaeastarseed asked if I'd like to play the "two cakes" game with it, where we both use the same reference to make our own versions, and of course I said YES! They finished their rendition MONTHS ago because they are awesome and you can see it here.

About 66 hours of painting time because I absolutely fell down the skin texture rabbit hole. Details that I especially enjoyed finding along the way include, but are not limited to, all those silver hairs shining on the crown of his head, that one incredibly long eyebrow hair curling down toward his eye, the reflection of the glass canopy above him in his eyes, the tracks of his quiescent crinkles by the corner of his eye, the way his rolled lips make the bristles of his stubble stand at attention just below his lower lip, the light catching on the impossibly tiny hairs along the bridge of his nose and in the stubble along the edge of his chin, and the stray white fibers on the back of his tux collar.