Hello,
I've been looking through Guru for quite a long time now trying to find an artist to capture the essence of my beloved Mesmer Yasmin. I've been unlucky, it would seem...either no one has responded, the artist is no longer doing portraits, or I didn't feel the connection to their work. I happened across your page and felt an instant connection with your work! I love the fantasy element your work imbues, I feel it matches Yasmin's etherial style. As an artist myself, I wanted to trust a very certain type of look and style to capture the essence that is Yassie.
Below are some images I've snapped of her.
To tell a little about her: Yasmin was inspired by the wife of Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon's wife. The real Yasmin Parvaneh is of English and Persian heritage--her beauty is both timeless and exotic. I chose to match my character's look to a photo taken of her in 1988 on a cover or Elle Magazine. Below is my own drawing of that cover that I used as inspiration to create the character:
Yasmin is primarily involved in PvP these days. The thrill of competition against humans excites her more that battling monsters. She loves being able to control and manipulate her opponents--toying with both their skills and their confidence during battle. Her beauty makes her appear aloof and even weak, but rest assured, within her exists a hellcat more than capable of holding her own against the largest and most brutal warrior. Firery and hotblodded she is as brave as she is beautiful. Capable as she is elegant.
Attached here is her IG biography summary from my Wiki page dedicated to her.
Quote:
Biography:
Stately, elegant, beautiful...just a few words often used to describe the lovely Yasmin as she grew up living a luxurious life in Ascalon City before the Searing. Like her mother and father, Yasmin is a gifted Mesmer, and true to the Mesmer mantra, she could enchant anyone or anything. Though she never intended to become a hero of any sort, Yasmin did find herself very attracted to danger and competitive fighting.
With Guild vs. Guild activities banned in Ascalon, she and her father, a famous Mesmer who competed both alongside, and even at one point against Devona's father in Ascalon during the old Guild Wars, traveled far and wide to watch the bloody competitive battles which were legal in Kryta, Cantha and Elona. Yasmin decided at a young age she wanted to compete in GvGs as her father did, and perhaps even be worthy enought to do battle in the Hall of Heroes. Her mother, on the other hand, did not approve of her beautiful daughter fighting, and eventually demanded that her father leave and never return, as he had filled his daughter's head with nonsense. Yasmin's mother began planning for her daughter to marry Duke Gaban to maintain her current wealth and standing.
Yasmin decided to defy her mother and run away to Kryta find her father just as the Charr attack Ascalon. As the city burns, she happens to find herself among Prince Rurik and a select recruits--Dahalia Sevigny, Tippe Of Elderwood, Detraya Fullvear, Adrin Alkavi and Gye of Darnassus--who manage to hold back much of the Charr forces. Over the course of two years following the Searing, Yasmin became closely involved with Prince Rurik. Though she doesn't realize it at first, she bares an uncanny resemblance to Rurik's dead fiancee Lady Althea (who was also a Mesmer). Thinking whimsically that she may marry the Prince, she is delighted when he pushes for Ascalon's refugees to go forward into Kryta. However, she is horrified by Rurik's reaction them coming across the ghost of Lady Althea and realizes that she will always share the Prince with this specter, her heart is quickly broken when she learns she looks almost identical to Althea. Angry, she berates the Prince and tells him "you used me...defiled me...violated my heart in a way no beast could," she continues "I will serve the people of Ascalon loyally, but alliegence to you is dead, the space you once occupied in my heart is black".
Broken hearted, she continues on with the refugees through the Shiverpeaks, where she witnesses Rurik's death at the hands of the Stone Summit. Friend Gye urges her to continue on to Kryta, where the two of them partake in GvG style competitions. While in Kryta, Yasmin and her friends come across the Mursaat and the Shining Blade, and decide to help stop the White Mantle. Their adventure takes them to the Fire Islands, where Yasmin is forced to fight an undead version of the Prince. The two make amends before he is sent to the Hall of Heroes.
Yasmin's skill as a competative fighter soon sends her across the ocean to Cantha, where she finds her father had remarried before passing away and she learns of a half-sister named Ariel. During her stay in Cantha, she studies under the legendary Satra of the guild That Hideous Strengh [THS] and improves her competatve skill earning her place in the guild Legend of Pi...and of course, she still manages to find time to stop Shiro Tagachi. Following her adventure, she returned to Kryta and took over leadership of the guild.
Currently, Yasmin's adventures have lead her to the desert lands of Elona, where she headed the call for help issued by Kormir.
Yasmin's talents as a mesmer have served various guilds such as The Arid Sea (Sand), Invallid Spell Target [WTF], Legend of Pi (Pi), The Zaishen [RNUB] Clan AOD (AOD) and her new guild Phoenix of Ascending [RiSe], which she proudly leads (she formed RiSe with her close friends from Ascalon and her old Pi teammates). Yas has had high profile romances with the Dervish warrior Kahmu, necromancer Adrin Alkavi, Mesmer of Bodom and the vanguard assassin Anton. Stylish as she is fearsome, she uses a butterfly mirror in combat to check her hair and makeup, as well as only the finest weapons. She is currently single.
I would be honored to be a subject of yours, if you would chose me.
Hopefully yours,
Yasmin ~