Winter Moorhen drawing

This is going to be a depiction of a moorhen crossing a frozen pond with a background of vegetation covered in fresh snow.The idea for the picture came after my period as artist in residence at Nature in Art in early february this year.The week of my residence there was marked by heavy snowfall and in quiet moments i took my camera out to photograph in the vicinity of the museum.It was whilst on one of my outings i came across tracks in the snow leading to a frozen pond and immediately i loved the way the snow had clumped on the dead reeds and other vegetation and so took many reference photo's here.Nearby i came across the moorhen and so the idea of depicting it crossing the frozen pond was born.

I'm not big on too much forward planning with my drawings,i have an idea and i like to get it down on paper as soon as possible,preferring to let the picture grow organically as i go.I have started here to develope the vegetation in the background leaving the snow covered areas to be completed later.I intend to have the moorhen near the left hand side of the picture ,walking towards the right with its movement echoed in the background direction of reed growth etc (if you look carefully you may be able to make out the very light outline of the moorhen) giving an overall impression of movement to the piece.