Shells and more shells

I've started a new piece (which is a little distorted in this photo!). I'm working on 6x24" cradled gessoboard to which I've applied a layer of Raw Sienna colored Colourfix Primer. On the top is the reference photo that I am working from. I started by laying in my whites and lightest blues on the shells, you can't really see my line drawing in white. I've also placed my darkest darks as a reference point to work from. There are so many elements in this piece that easily gets confusing. I like the composition and the long rectangular format. Today I was working outside on my deck in 85º weather because the sun felt so good. While working in the sun, I learned something interesting, the colored pencil starts to melt and adheres to the surface really smoothly. Its almost like working with the solvent but the pencil doesn't mush as much as when using solvent. I'm going to experiment more with this, as long as I can stand the heat!