Dress Up and Play!

As some of you may already know, I've organized an event in downtown West Branch, CosPlay (short for "costume play"). Basically, you dress up as your favorite cartoon, video game, super hero, movie, sci-fi, fantasy character. Pose for photos, interact with other fans of the genre. It's for ALL ages. If you've always wanted to dress as Frodo from Lord of the Rings, or Princess Leia from Star Wars, now's your chance! I'm hoping to organize a costume contest and I might do free cartoon/comic book sketches for a half hour, or maybe $1 a drawing. There will be some vendors selling toys and comics. It'll be fun. It's also the first weekend of "The Amazing Spider-Man" movie in theaters. So you can grab a flick while in town!
This takes place Saturday, July 7th from 4-7pm. If you want to participate in the costume contest, there'll be a table to sign up.
This is all FREE, by the way. Except vendors' products, of course. Here's an example of CosPlay:


Maybe there can be some re-enacted battles, like Star Wars vs. Star Trek, X-Men vs. Avengers. Who knows? And I'm hoping to make this an annual event.

What I'm down with

I am trying to set up a few things in the West Branch area that I'm hoping will bring together the community a little bit-

CosPlay (short for "costume play",[1] is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction such as Disney.[citation needed] Favorite sources include cmanga, anime, tokusatsu,[clarification needed] comic books, graphic novels, video games, hentai and fantasy movies. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa. There is also a subset of cosplay culture centered around sex appeal, with cosplayers specifically choosing characters that are known for their attractiveness and/or revealing (even explicit) costumes.
Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centred around role play. A broader use of the term cosplay applies to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context.) in West Branch, maybe during one of the Fabulous Fridays events downtown.

Enchante Gallery Presents: Figure Drawing/Painting Workshop w/ Nuttall Art - I will be conducting a workshop on how to draw or paint the human figure with a live model. It takes place May 5th at Enchante` Gallery and the cost is $20 (to pay the male and female models and for use of the gallery)

NUTTALL ART STUDIO'S 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY! - Saturday, April 21,from 5:00pm until 7:00pm at the studio. Free snacks, giveaways, and $1 raffle!

I'll also be doing events like the West Branch Art & Wine Walk, Blast the Blues at Dean Arbour, Fabulous Friday's Art in the Street, and maybe another Art de Combat.

Avengers (and Justice League) Assemble!

As you can see, our Halloween was a super hero Halloween. Everyone chose their own costumes. I had to run around town to find a round shield and then paint it up to look like Captain America's. I had to search for something that looked like a hammer for Logan's Thor costume. And I pieced together my Green Arrow costume (and every piece of clothing was too damn tight!).

Prowling the streets...

This Halloween was a good one, except for the cold and the kids being sick. My wife and I worked together to make 3yr old Logan's Popeye costume. I could NOT find any kid's Popeye costume in stores OR online anywhere. Not even Ebay! I made my own costume, including the corncob pipes Logan and I sported. I asked him if he wanted me to be Bluto, Wimpy or Poopdeck Pappy, Popeye's dad. He insisted on Pappy.

This was Mikey's first year as Spider-Man. He had a tough time with the mask so spent half the night without it. Rebecca was Batgirl. I can't BELIEVE how slutty the costume looks! Because of the cold, we had her wear a long sleeve black shirt and black pants, which I think looked great! I don't know what the hell the designers were thinking for this outfit for little girls!

Logan wanted to go home after the 3rd street, and Mikey was WILLING to go home after the 4th.