Ink drawings and good books

I have had a very productive day today. The kids were at Grandma's all day, and from 9 am till 4 pm I had TIME. Time to do whatever I felt needed doing! The luxury of having time to yourself, I savored every minute of it.

First I finished several watercolors that I had been working on.
One is another take on princesses and knights, and will be for sale either as a print or as an original in my shop (I have not decided which way it will be)
Another is a song illustration for a friend of mine, that I was asked to do. Actually I was given the whole album to listen, and had an option of illustrating one of the songs. They were all good, but not many had strong visual images in them. The strongest one was a song about a couple , where the woman dreamed for them to be cats, sit on roofs, spill ink on owners poems, drink water from puddles etc. But later on she forgot all about it and became this typical boring housewife. Sad. But often times true.

And while I was doing it, I wanted to have some ink drawing references, so one of my ALL TIME favorite books about a great animator Nordstein came to mind. I will be showing off his animation soon, but so far here are a couple of drawings from that book. His wife did them. He was the director, she was the animator. Wonderful lively line, composition and free style that I admire.
Also from that same book a photo of their family. I love looking at it. I have always dreamt to have artistic parents. Did not happen:) our house was always spotless and very cozy, but not artistic at all. This photo represents something that I envisioned as an alternative reality, while growing up.