Sooty And Co Presents

After the WWI centenary, here are some more 2018 anniversaries…

2018 has seen so many anniversaries that I wanted to draw something for a few of them. Mine tends to focus on UK-related anniversaries, but of course many of these things have had some sort of influence around the world. A few more I discovered would have been good to include – sorry, James Cook, et al – but I had to draw the line somewhere! The children’s TV characters Sooty, Sweep and Soo feature in all of my pieces (therefore my pieces are for fun fan art), due to finding out that Sooty turned 70 this year, and that really inspired me in terms of how these anniversary pictures would come together. I had planned to put all the images together into one piece; however minimising all those pictures I’d individually worked on down so small didn’t seem right in the end, so here’s six pieces finished in not too much time all in one post:

Aethelflaed

2018 marks the 1,100^th anniversary of the death of the royal Anglo-Saxon daughter of Alfred the Great, Aethelflaed the ‘Lady of the Mercians’. Helping to continue what her father started, in leadership she achieved a number of things, important to the development of Mercian England (and for more description on this, look her up!). It’s interesting that these events of a ‘warrior queen’ occurred over 1,100^th years ago and we’re only just celebrating 100 years since women got the vote. What happened? Back at school, I can’t recall touching upon pre-1066 England too much, and certainly didn’t retain anything about any Aethelflaed. I don’t know how it is now, but these times should definitely be taught, as important in explaining the initial development of England, and Britain as a whole.

The Circus

250 years since the idea of the circus was born here, in England (London, to be more precise). I only discovered the 250th anniversary this September when I visited the annual Sand Sculpture Festival in Weston-super-Mare, themed around the circus to mark the occasion. Growing up, I don’t particularly recall going to circuses, aside from a brief visit to one at a theme park, so they haven’t been much interest to me in that way. And I don’t like clowns! More recently I attended a Cirque du Soleil performance which was very impressive. This was the first of the pictures I completed and it seemed a natural fit for Sooty and Sweep to perform, however enthusiastically it might or might not be for some.

Frankenstein 

After finishing the other pictures I decided to do one more to even things out. In 1918, the novel ‘Frankenstein’, or ‘The Modern Prometheus’, was published, written by Mary Shelley. The story of a pieced together monster has continued on in popular culture for a very long time, so undoubtedly a significant book to acknowledge the anniversary of, 200 years on. I must admit years ago when I learnt that the author was a women I was quite surprised – not that I couldn’t envision a woman writing of such a thing ever, but due to the time it was written and such I had just assumed it was a man. Another sketchier piece kept to monochrome to fit the period and theme.

NHS

70 years of the National Health Service and I almost feel that it has been longer than that. Any excuse to include Sooty’s adorable little camper van. Sketchier piece as I wanted to have a little bit of variety between pictures.

RAF

100 years since the Royal Air Force was formed, close to the end of WWI. The Spitfire aircraft, used during and after WWII, makes an appearance (again) as a notable part of the RAF. Personal fact: my grandpa was in the RAF. Just now I discovered that their motto translates as ‘through adversity to the stars’, which really has quite the ring to it. I was inspired by a WWI poster for the colour choices in the picture. 

Votes For Women

Well, only some in Britain did at first. But it was a start. If the ‘suffragettes’ had not been so passionate back in the 1910s, how many years since women had the right to vote would we be celebrating instead? I looked up a few women’s rights posters from the time to inspire the simpler coloured background.

Sooty

I enjoyed watching ‘The Sooty Show’ and ‘Sooty & Co.’ as a child, so of course I must acknowledge Sooty’s 70^th – and how good he looks! And Sweep is just so adorable. Sooty first appeared on the BBC back in 1952 before becoming a regular on ITV since the late ’60s. 

There's perhaps one or two more anniversary pictures I'd like to acknowledge, but it's already mid-November! Inktober doodles to come next. Thanks for looking.