I spent the weekend working on the pastel/conte painting of the Mermacrabicorn. I begin by loosely drawing in the layout of the major forms in a blue pastel and then tighten it up a bit with black conte. The softness of the pastel helps the mobility and blending of the conte, which is waxier and doesn't smear around as easily. I experiment with the background and study the relationship of the mermacrabicorn to the forms surrounding it. Then I really push the values using a hatching technique and built up the structure of my underpainting. Once I was happy with that, I come back over the top of that with a bold use of color in a soft pastel and experiment with the temperature of light.