Mamoru Yokota was, once again, one of the guests of honor at FanimeCon in 2012. Having attended some of his panels and stood in most of his autograph lines, there are certain things I've come to expect with Yokota. And one of them is Twitter.

Mamoru Yokota is an absolute fan of the social media site. If he's awake, he's posting something on his account. While most of his comments highlight the meals he's eaten or his favorite drawings, during conventions, Yokota posts his location on his account, and whether or not he's willing to take commissions.

This sketch came about on Sunday, May 27. I had arrived early to try to get a decent spot at the second Shigeto Koyama autograph line, only to find out that those that were cut off from the day before were all getting cutsies courtesy of the Fanime staff, and those who were already there had started lining up at 7 am. At 9 am, the line for Koyama was already very long, and I realized that any chance of us getting a sketch of something other than Chuck was fading fast. Fortunately, Yokota came to the rescue; He tweeted that he was going to be in the Artist Alley, immediately. I, and a few others, made a quick dash for the convention center to get something out of him.

One thing I've never understood about artistic guests is that they *rarely* ever bring art supplies with them when invited as a guest to a convention. Upon arrival to his booth, I, as well as the few others that came with me, all noticed that Yokota was armed with five markers. Yays?! Fortunately, being a former girl scout who always comes prepared, I had a solid set of Copic markers with me, and told Yokota that he was free to use them. He made several sketches with my set.

Yokota apparently really liked this particular shikishi and posted it on his Twitter feed. A few other people commented in Japanese about how much they liked it, and how envious they were that people in the US can get artwork like this so easily.

I had to wait until really late in the evening to pick up this, and DrScorpio's, sketch....which, of course, gave me a perfect excuse to attend his Perv Panel....teehee. I took this crummy pic of Yokota with the sketches inside his hotel. Too bad he didn't invite us up for a nightcap - I'm sure he's a fun drunk to be around.


Password required to view sketches