Today's doodle of the day is another beard related cartoon for TheHatmanWebsite. I was quite pleased with this one, shame I misspelled the word siege on the version he used for his Instagram account @thehatman40!

This morning I have mainly been doodling beards, so for today's doodle of the day I am sharing a selection of my sketchy beardy guys.

I make no apologies that today's Doodle of the Day is horse related again, as it is something I revisit every day as more gags and this new strip continue to develop. 

This is another character idea I am playing with, a horse who has a few issues including sticking a carrot to his forehead and believing he is a unicorn and keeping a pet fly.

Whilst thinking about doodle of the day over breakfast this morning I started thinking about an illustration project for a book I completed a couple of years ago. Don't Tell Me Flying is the Safest Way to Travel by Veronique Meunier is a superb self help book to overcome a fear of flying.  Veronique understands this fear, and has overcome it, so her writing is simultaneously relevant, insightful, understanding and humorous.

This cartoon is the first in what I hope will be a series of beard and tattoo related toons inspired by thehatman and his pogonophile friends and followers (Pogonophiles are people who love or study beards).  

You can see more on his Instagram account by seeking out @thehatman40, or very soon on his new website here.

Doodle of the day.  I was fortunate to spend three months last summer in Sweden with Lotus Nei Gong at their martial arts retreat. Three months of dedicated training not just in the internal art of taiji quan which I was already practising, but also Chinese medicine, fighting skills and xingyiquan (another internal martial art but faster and more martial than taiji). You can find out more about the school on their website.

As the school gears up for the 2014 retreat I thought I would share this little doodle of teacher Tom Burrows and his deer horn knives.....which prompted a running joke within the group of Tom writing to his beloved knives in 'Dear Horn knives' ...get it?

Maybe one day I will turn this into a strip as I said I would.

The ink is still wet on today's Doodle of the day as I have been drawing these guys whilst on the telephone. Cartoon horses continue to dominate my virtual sketchbooks and this particular page was doodled in the Adobe Ideas app.

Doodle of the day.  Years ago in the early days of my cartooning a cartoonist friend of mine John Byrne gave me a piece of valuable advice, and I figure I should pass it on to anyone interested in cartooning.  He suggested that in the times when inspiration or humour seem to be lacking, but I wanted to draw anyway, I should draw what he called 'talking heads''.

Doodle of the day. 

I draw on the Draw Something app most days since being introduced to it a couple of years ago by my friend and technical advisor.  For me, it's not only an excuse to draw, it's good practice and it introduces a social aspect too. It was also what lead to my TV appearance (see the first post in this Melting Pot).

Doodle of the day today is a horse again. I am spending all of my idle moments sketching these guys as I have to be able to draw them swiftly and consistently, and that is the only way I know to achieve it. Say hello (again) to Jose.....as all horsey people will know, he is an Iberian breed. In the developing strip he will be one of the main characters.

Today's Doodle of the Day was drawn following a conversation with a friend on the subject of renewable energy sources (I have the most exciting chats!). You either understand the joke or you don't, so I won't get into the technical details of renewables or why people in that world will find it funny. I hope they do though :)

Doodle of the day. I sat and doodled this whilst I ate my breakfast just now. Another of my favourite iPad drawing apps; Sketchclub.

Doodle of the day.

I have an urge to draw in the real world for a change, which doesn't happen that often for me as I have been predominantly digital for over a decade. I wandered down to my local art materials shop and bought myself two nice black markers. Then I drew Brian the pony, who has 'small horse' issues.

Doodle of the day. It is my Mum's birthday today and I am about to drive North to visit her.  Happy Birthday Mum! She loves pigs.....