Let Them Eat Cake

On my board today - 

A juicy fruit tart, created for the London Art College weekend challenge (cake) and preliminary sketch of a single red rose for the botanical art course. 

The cake needs to be finished soon to be submitted. I chose it to practice layering reds and creating shiny fruit.

The rose sketch is done to decide and tweak composition. Two leaves currently touch and this needs to be corrected at the next stage to either overlap more or show some separation to improve the composition. A quick indication of tones (shade) has been added. Photos have been taken of the flower as live specimens have a nasty habit of changing shape and dying. 

Next stage is to trace the basic outline to keep as a 'master' and transfer onto my sketchbook for detailed shading and colour testing. After that it will be transferred to my art paper for the colour stage. It's a long process and I love it!