Apple sketch - 1st painting

This is my sketch of the apples I will be painting.

Artists do (well they are supposed to) multiple sketches to "study" a painting. It's to help show the shading, focus, messaging. Sometimes you'll create a color study to see which colors will evoke the message you want or which colors will go best together. By the time you start painting you should have a very clear idea of what you're going to do. I'm finding that there's a lot of planning and preparation into painting one picture. Just when you thought artists were a bunch of spontaneous paint splashers.....