Martin Rowson has been drawing for the Guardian since the 1980s; Ella Baron since 2022. In paint and pixels, each is tasked with capturing the chaos and absurdity of our political moment
Photographs and video by David Levene
Gallery: cartoonists Martin Rowson and Ella Baron at work – in pictures
Martin Rowson and Ella Baron are both regular contributors to the Guardian’s daily political cartoon. Martin has been with the Guardian for decades; Ella has been contributing since 2022. This week, we challenged the pair to draw on the same subject (Trump and a world in turmoil), on the same day, to see what each – with their different styles, tools and perspectives – would come up with. Martin landed on a Shakespearean scene, with a warped “King Leer” flanked by snickering world leaders. Ella proposed him squatting in a dystopian nest, surrounded by his spoils. Below, each reflects on their process, the challenges and joys of political cartoons, and what they have learned from one another.
I’m old school. In the same way humans have for at least 67,800 years, I make marks with something runny on a flattish surface. Despite the growth of digital imaging over the past 40 years, I can’t even do Photoshop. That’s why I wanted to see what would happen if my friend and colleague Ella Baron and I had a “cartoon-off”, drawing the same topic to the same deadline, because she works exclusively digitally.
