Mozart Reimagined Preorders Now Live on Kickstarter!

Hello friends! After ten years, Mozart Reimagined is now available for Pre-Order on Kickstarter!

You can watch some preview videos below, or just click on over to Kickstarter to learn more!

I hope you will all enjoy this labor of love!

If you feel passionately about my project, I would really appreciate it if you would share the Kickstarter link ( https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/948510266/mozart-reimagined-photography-book-by-tyson-vick )on your social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.!) You can use the hashtags #tysonvickphotography and #mozartreimagined if you like to tag your posts. It would help out immensely. Thank you all for your support over the years! I’m excited to finally be producing the book!

Mozart Reimagined – Die Zauberflöte

Mozart Reimagined by Tyson Vick will feature photos illustrating Mozart’s “Die Zauberflote”, an amazing fantasy adventure opera.

Mozart Reimagined features six photos by Tyson Vick illustrating the opera Die Zauberflote

Mozart Reimagined showcases nearly 100 photos that bring to life Mozart’s operas through photography. I spent a decade building props and sets, meeting models and photographing across the country to showcase what Mozart’s music has meant to me. The book also features essays written about each opera from my own unique perspective. The book humorously points out plot-holes, gives insight into past and present performances, recites a little bit of History and overflows with my own passion for the music of Mozart.

Here’s an excerpt from the book which accompanies the Die Zauberflote pictures:

“At the end of nearly every ensemble, the fourth wall is broken as the characters reveal the moral of the story. Here they say, “Only the harmony of friendship can alleviate our hardships; without such sympathy there is no happiness on earth.” The effect is much like a children’s storybook, and makes me think that the target audience for this opera included children, an audience mostly untapped by opera, and, as we know today, the most profitable audience to tap.”

Die Zauberflote Act 1 by Tyson Vick

The adventuresome Javanese prince is played by the fantastically popular social media icon, Edward Zo who you can follow on Instagram and Youtube to get all of his latest videos, fashion tips, and more. You can see some behind-the-scenes photos of Edward and The Queen of the Night here.

Die Zauberflote Act 1c, by Tyson Vick

The most perfectly cast model, a photographer named Jon, portrays Papageno. With him as my bird-man, I really felt my photos coming together. You can get a step-by-step look at how I built the tiny buildings for the photo of Papageno below in this blog post here.

Die Zauberflote, Act 2 by Tyson Vick

I’m going to be giving you a preview of photos from every chapter of Mozart Reimagined over the next month, and then it will be time for pre-orders. I will be launching pre-orders on Kickstarter on September 14th, 2015! Until then, I wanted to give you a glimpse of some of the photos and excerpts from the book so you can see what’s in store! Subscribe to the blog for every update, or check back on September 14th for the launch of the book.

Go Behind the Scenes with the Costume Sketches and Concept Art of Tyson Vick’s Photographic Mozart Illustrations

Whenever I take photos with big concepts, I start with concept art and costume sketches. Usually these aren’t so detailed that someone else can interpret them, but they are detailed enough for me to remember what I feel the need to include in an image. There are three types of art I can potentially do in order to help conceive my vision.

1. Costume Sketches

2. Concept Art

3. Thumbnails 

I use these three types of art to help me develop my ideas into costumes, find models and locations and compose images.

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First up is a set of thumbnails I drew up for my illustrations of Ascanio in Alba. Interestingly, while I did photograph these things, I did not use any of these ideas in my final photograph.

Ascanio in Alba concept thumbnails

Next is a sketch for Fiordiligi’s costume from the opera “Cosi Fan Tutte”. This character dresses up in her boyfriends military uniform.

Fiordiligi costume art for Cosi Fan Tutte

Der Stein der Weisen was a fun opera to bring to life through illustration. Set in a fantastical Asian world, there was a lot to play with.

Der stein der Weisen concept sketch for Genie

My genie is based off of Buddha and the maidens vying for his bird’s attention were drawn from Chinese inspiration.

Der Stein der Weisen costume concept for maiden

The thumbnail below is followed by the image I produced.

Der Stein der Weisen concept sketch

Compare the thumbnail above to the finished image below to see how closely my concepts are followed.

Der Stein der Weisen Act 1. Photo by Tyson Vick. Hair & Make-up by Lizzie Hatfield. Models: Sierra Rae, Meilyn Saychow, Kolya Cain

Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots didn’t have such a big concept process, I only needed the thumbnail to get an idea of what I wanted to get out of the final picture.

Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots thumbnail sketch

You can compare the thumbnail above to the finished image below.

Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots, Act 1 by Tyson Vick

Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail was costumed out of clothes found in my friend and fellow costumer Camille’s closest. I thought about all the pieces she had available, and then combined them on paper as seen below.

A costume sketch based on Camille’s costumes and set in the yellow void.

Below you can see some of these costumes in the finished image.

Mozart Project. Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail. Photo by Tyson Vick.

The Magic Flute is an opera I have extensively illustrated. When I first heard it, I was inspired to fill an entire sketchbook.

An early drawing of mine, illustrating the Act 1 Aria “O zittre Nicht”

But when I decided to use photography to bring these ideas to life, I did not know anything about costuming. So, I started petty small. I would probably go bigger today, especially with the Queen of the Night.

Papageno concept art

My costume ideas of Tamino and the Queen of the Night were based on what I could realistically make at the time.

Act 1 Costume Sketches for Tamino and The Queen of the Night

Tamino’s outfit is influenced heavily by Japanese history and video game costumes.

Tamino Costume Sketch for my Magic Flute photos

Below you can see the outfit created from the above design.

Papageno was always meant to be a sort of bird version of a faun in my final image. I based his tattoos and look of of the Egyptian art of the Ba Spirit. A half-bird/half person creature represent a person’s soul.

Papageno costume sketch for my Magic Flute photos.

Papageno was brought to life by Jon Sollee in the image below.

Die Zauberflote, Act 2 by Tyson Vick

My Don Giovanni costume sketches were fairly blank, mostly focusing on shape.

Donna Elvira costume sketch for my Don Giovanni photos

In the end, Don Giovanni got a much more complicated white doublet, but the same cut still applies.

Don Giovanni costume sketch

My thumbnails for Don Giovanni, below.

Don Giovanni concept art

A set of Il Sogno di Scipione thumbnails.

Il Sogno di Scipone concept art

Don Pippo of L’oca del Cairo and Lucio Silla, of Lucio Silla, costume sketches.

Don Pippo costume sketch for L’Oca del Cairo and Lucio Silla costume sketch.

Compare the Lucio Silla Sketch to the final image.

La Finta Semplice was originally meant to feature five or so models, but they kept dropping out. Below was my last minute attempt to create some costumes that could be pulled from what I already owned.

La Finta Semplice costume sketches

The Marriage of Figaro photos were inspired by the image below, something I created after first hearing the opera a decade ago.

The Marriage of Figaro concept art

The Marriage of Figaro photos involved so many models and stylists, that I needed a thorough map of thumbnails to keep them straight.

The Marriage of Figaro Concept art

I used the page below to keep track of which photos I had taken on the day.

The Marriage of Figaro thumbnail art

Compare the middle sketch above to the final image below.

For Mitridate, I based Aspasia’s outfit’s off of Historically accurate garb.

Aspasia costume sketch for my Mitridate photos

Farnace was also based off of History, but with a fantastical tattoo addition.

Farnace costume sketch for Mitridate

Compare the costume sketch above to the final costume below. I regret selling that cool pirate belt holding his cape up.

This is the photo that I will be showing you how I made! Mitridate, Act III, by Tyson Vick.

Finally, I end with the costume sketches for Zaide, another set of costumes pulled from my friend Camille’s closet.

Zaide costume sketches

I hope you enjoyed viewing all this concept artwork! I have much, much more, but none of it is scanned.

If you like following the creation of my illustrations of Mozart’s operas through photography, please feel free to subscribe to the blog! All you have to do is type your email into the box and the blog will be sent directly to your inbox from here on out! You don’t need to provide any information beyond your email!

Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday Mozart!

I waited to post today, because today is Mozart’s Birthday!

This year Mrs. Nina Nöhrig of Mozarthaus Vienna and Brigitte Pfisterer of NetHotels.com, have invited Mozartians all over the world to submit a photo greeting for Mozart’s birthday to be presented at his former residence! My photo, and many others, will be displayed in a slideshow at Mozarthaus, today, January 27th, in honor of Mozart’s birthday.

Tyson Vick’s photo illustrating The Magic Flute with a personalized message for Mozart’s 259th birthday.

This fun event was organized in part by Sherry Davis from The Chronicles of a Modern Day Mozartian, whose passion for Mozart continues to benefit lovers of Mozart the world over! Please head on over to her Facebook page to participate in similar events, and get the latest news on Mozart.

 

An image from the Mozarthaus slideshow! You can see my picture there!  Photo by Brigitte Pfisterer. 

From Concept to Completion for Tyson Vick’s Mozart Photography Project!

Well, I’ve Run Out of Costumes to show you. Over the past three months I have shared nearly every costume I created for my photographic illustrations of Mozart’s Operas. There are three or four pieces hiding in the closet somewhere that I’d like to dig out and photograph for you guys, but then I will have showed you everything!

While this project is getting ready to be compiled and put together in a book, I wanted to show you how it all began!

One day I was walking home from the library after looking for some Mozart Operas to get through the inter-library loan, and I thought, “Hmmm. Maybe I could illustrate my favorite parts of these operas through photography!”

When I got home I drew some sketches on my opera list, which you can see below!

The first thing ever put on paper for my Mozart Photography Project.

And after ten years, that list turned into this:

Half of the finished photographs all put together in a collage.

In the image above you can see a little over half of all of the photos I took to illustrate the operas of Mozart! You’ll have to squint, but you can even make out that two of the initial sketches seen in the top sketch image were brought to life and can be seen in the final grid of photographs– lol, it’s a lot of work but on the top image, far right sketch row, second box down (guy blowing away in wind) is the design for row 1 column 5 in the photo set. In the sketch far right, bottom, image of lady with severed head can be seen in the photos row three column 3.

Isn’t that fun to see an idea come to fruition?

Be sure to subscribe to this blog, because now you will start getting all of the information on the books progress! You’ll get to see some of the final photos, and the beautiful costumes, hair and make-up — both Historical and Fantastical! There are also a few costumes left to share with you once I get them photographed! These are exciting times!

 

Creating Miniature Buildings for The Magic Flute

Die Zauberflote or The Magic Flute is one of Mozart’s and the world’s most famous operas. It is a fantasy story about an Asian Prince who has to undergo trials, and he is helped by his half-bird/half-man friend, Papageno.

At the end of the play the Prince has to face the challenges of the Fire Temple and the Water Temple using his Magic Flute.

I wanted these two temples to be a part of my final image, and I wanted them to be something you could focus your attention on once you were done admiring Papageno and Papagena!

Die Zauberflote, Act 2 by Tyson Vick

I built these two temples as miniatures using blocks, balsa wood, craft foam, toys, expanding foam and styrofoam. First I drew a concept, and then imagined how to make it 3D in the physical world. Using toy blocks as a base, I built them up, like modeling with clay, but by using rigid pieces. Below you will see the beginning of the Fire Temple.

Using a child’s toy block, balsa wood and craft foam, I made the base of the fire temple.

Anything that looks right for my purposes is enlisted, including empty containers. A paper cup was mutilated for the top of the Fire Temple.

I cut apart a paper cup for the building up top.

I wanted the fire temple to be a building built into a volcano. The concept was for the volcano to have erupted during the buildings existence, destroying part of it. To make the mountain I added expanding foam, the type used in home repair.

I added expanding foam to the block to create a mountain.

After the expanding foam was dry, I carved it like a mountain. I also added a cute toy sphinx, because The Magic Flute has a heavy Egyptian influence in the story.

Once the expanding foam dried, I carved it to look like a mountainside.

After everything was primed, I painted the Fire Temple with colors that matched reality. There’s also a tiny Isis statue at the bottom, one of the gods who is praised in two different songs in the opera.

Here is the Fire temple painted.

Looking at a close up of the top of the temple, you will see how I tried to make it look like a volcano had erupted.

A close up of the little Sphinx and melted building.

The Water Temple, on the other hand, was less heavy and rocky. I wanted it to look like it was built on a plateau, but tha the water rushing out of the temple had eroded it so far over the years, that it was just sort of hanging on a hollowed out spire.

The water temple was made out of a toilet paper tube, styrofoam insert from some random package.

I used a styrofoam insert for the base, and I loved the way it looked textured and rocky when painted. I think the styrofoam mixed with the expanding foam worked better than just the expanding foam alone.

The water temple gets it’s own expanding foam piled on to the styrofoam.

I primed this one in two colors. The black was for bricks. I carved brick shapes into the craft foam which was built over the toilet paper tube. When the carved foam is painted black, I could then lightly brush the surface with brick colors, grey and brown, and the black in the brick’s crevices would stay black, making the bricks pop, visually.

I primed the pieces in black and white. Black to create shadows, white for better color application.

The little Grecian temple at the top of the water temple turned out very wonky and misshapen, but I fixed that in photoshop. I even added glitter to the greens so that little weird light effects would occur when the miniature was photographed for the composite image.

Here is the water temple painted.

Viewing the completed composite once again, you will know how those tiny buildings were made! There are even more tiny buildings and cities seen throughout my project. Can you spot them all?

Now, when you look at the image again, you will see the two temples flanking Papageno and Papagena! Die Zauberflote, Act 2 by Tyson Vick

Please subscribe to this blog if you like posts like this! Thanks so much!

New Posts Every Monday!

After a long hiatus from this project due to my father’s death, and my continued work on my other fashion book project “A Steampunk Guide to Hunting Monsters“, I will be coming back to this blog more consistently. I will be posting on One Delightful Day once a week from now until I run out of costumes.

Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots, Act 1 by Tyson Vick

Hopefully, I will be doing this for as long as it takes for my Mozart Photography book to come out! Because the photos and writing are in their final stages. I only have a few more things to add to the text before it gets sent off for a round of proof-reading and fact checking, and I have purchased a recording of Don Giovanni to help me get a better perspective (I’ve only ever seen and heard it, never read it.)

Don Giovanni Act Two, by Tyson Vick

My father was very proud of my work on this project. It was his motto, “practice your craft”, and he enjoyed watching how I excelled by leaps and bounds by challenging myself in photography, costuming and business. It was my father who motivated me, helped me, and I must be completely honest, funded this project. I will finish it in his memory and I hope you will join me!

Mitridate Act One by Tyson Vick.

I would like to ask all of my readers to subscribe to this blog, as well. The posts will come straight to your inbox, and you will be able to see every costume and every updated from here on out! I have put the subscribe box at the top of the sidebar for ease.

Die Zauberflote, Act 2 by Tyson Vick

I started this project Ten Years ago, and I can’t wait to bring the finished book to you guys!  Thanks for following along so far!