I was asked to develop a political cartoon illustrating each of the main parties’ manifestos with regard to the rural areas of Britain. The page it entitled: ‘With the General Election looming, we ask four of the main parties why rural property owners should vote for them’
Developing the cartoon
We developed the cartoon to work in and out of the text to give the page a bit of a lift which would be otherwise heavy in copy. Political copy too. As with most political cartoons, it is a satirical view of how some people view Westminster’s approach to Government. We see David Cameron driving wildly about the fields knocking over solar panels because they are not fashionable any more, at the same time, shoving Nick Clegg away robbing him of any chance of reaching the controls. Meanwhile, Ed Milliband scampers alongside struggling to get a foothold onto the tractor. I illustrated Nigel Farage blasting away with a shot gun at a pair of grey squirrels. UKIP seem to have it in for the grey squirrel. They say that if UKIP are voted in, a serious study would be commissioned into the humane eradication of the wee creatures.
The cartoon in detail
Once the layout and drawing was agreed, I worked on the final piece. With political cartoons, I always do the faces first as that is the part that can go easily wrong. The trickiest person to paint I found was Nick Clegg as he has near ‘normal’ features. The others are easier as they are all in some ways living cartoons themselves, especially Nigel. He is a gift for a cartoonist. 
The political cartoon on the page
Once we were all complete, I was pretty pleased with the result. The cartoon gave a bit of informative levity and colour to the party manifestos and worked well with the lively pull out headlines. And the client was happy too. Great news. 
The initial drawing
