Inspiration at the British Museum

Towards the end of my trip in London I was starting to get worried. I still hadn't had an idea I was happy with for the Doctor Who character. I had figured out that I wanted to design a creature that transformed in the good old were- fashion but I hadn't known from were- to what?

On Sunday, I went to the British Museum. I've always wanted to go there ever since my interest in history started (I even used to want to be an archaeologist).





I went to the Egyptian section first. This had been one of my main historical interests for a very long time and I didn't want to miss out if these artifacts were ever moved back to Egypt after the ever lasting debates. The first thing that struck me was the Rossetta Stone. I patiently waited my turn to actually get anywhere near the thing. At first I was quite calm in thought but my aggrevation, in true old grumpy Victor Meldrew style constantly grew towards the people looking at the Stone. Already having had that moment of awe stolen from me (that I was lucky enough to experience in front of the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin) as the people around it were just too bloody annoying. It really proved to me that these artifacts had become celebrities. People didn't want to see them because of their amazing qualities or historical significances, but purely because they are so well known. When standing right in front of the stone I heard a lady next to me say, "Oh the three texts all say the same thing." OMG please save me from my own dispair, you idiot this is the stone that that good old Frenchie used to crack the code of ancient hiëroglyphs. There was another incident but I will spare you as the frustration is my own and probably a bit silly. I thought, thank the Gods she's here because she really needs educating. My apologies of course if you didn't know that the Rossetta Stone bares the same text in three different languages. (As I will say in one of my more recent blogs, I didn't know about every reference made in the Sherlock Holmes Museum either, so I should really be as aggrevated by myself as by the people in the British Museum. :D)



Let's get back to the positive side of things: the huge and amazing collection. I was thrilled to see that the museum had a huge collection of statues of Sachmet, one of my favourite goddesses in all paganism as I just think she's really beautiful. It's one of those connections I just can't explain, just like my love of Cernunnos. She has the body of a human and the head of a lioness. Nothing really triggered in my mind at this point except for excitement. Luckily they are far less known artifacts so I was able to stand in awe of them for a long time and enjoy them in their full beautiful glory.



Carrying on through the exhibition and reading almost every information board there was, I looked up and saw in the distance a ginormous roaring lion's head sticking out from around the corner. It was very impressive and not particularly Egyptian which spurred my curiosity. I slowly worked my way through the room and along the way I came across a pair of lions lying down beautifully sculpted and very impressive.





When I came to the giant lion I realised I had in fact entered the Assyrian section, hence the style being different. It really was breathtaking! Then it came to me, that was it... a werelion! I still need to figure out the exact storyline, as in name of planet, race etc. but that will all come now. I want to do the sketches of the two forms, human and lion and the bust/sculpture will be mid-transformation to show that part of the character design. The ferosity of the roar and the beautiful padded and clawed feet were just amazing and exactly what I was looking for.