"What we talk about when we talk about love" and other images

These sketches are preliminary to a picture I hope to complete based upon Raymond Carver's short story "What we talk about when we talk about love." Carver is a favorite of mine, both his poetry and short stories. To me, he wrote like Hopper painted; often the subject is something from the everyday but from a particular point of view, a sober even somber view of the mundane. Carver's life was fueled by alcohol and apparently in addition to self destructive tendencies he occasionally became abusive, violent. "What we talk about...." includes conversation between the four characters, drinking heavily as the sun sinks in Albuquerque, about what it means to be in love and how lovers behave with and toward the other in the couple. The two couples in the storey bring their individual experiences to the table. There are stories of divorce, reconciliation, drinking, violence and the ability of the spirit to somehow sustain love through it all.

The sketch at the lower left with the table and shadow lines is what I hope will evolve into the final setting for the scene I hope to paint. The drawings above are my first sketchbook attempts at representing the characters; I've moved to a larger format and started a charcoal rendering I hope will help me finalize shapes, positions and facial expressions.