We recently connected with Kaycie D. and have shared our conversation below.

Kaycie, appreciate you joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

In my late twenties, I was working a full-time job illustrating at game studio, and I had just started production on my webcomic, “B-SIDE You”. I was drawing and working approximately 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week. Turns out, the body is not equipped to work for that long, and my elbow tendon gave out. Several weeks of no drawing, some occupational therapy, and lots of misery later, I was back at work. I invested in some ergonomic solutions, but did not lessen my workload. I blew out the same elbow AND my wrist three months later – one week after putting in my notice at my job to pursue freelance and comic-making full-time.

I slowly began to recover over the next few months, but I didn’t stop work altogether. January 2nd, 2019 – the day after launching my Patreon for my comic – my wrist blew out again. I angrily carted myself to physical therapy, and they did their best for ten weeks before referring me to a hand specialist. An MRI revealed it was just bad tendinitis, and the hand specialist encouraged me to keep working, that I was young and would bounce back. Considering I was in pain just sitting on my couch, I ignored them and stopped drawing for four months straight to recover.

It took several years, a few jumbo rolls of physio tape, and lots of patience before I was finally able to draw again without pain. I was incredibly privileged and fortunate enough to have a support system during this time, but those days were some of the darkest of my life. The idea that I wouldn’t be able to draw the story that had lodged itself in my brain was overwhelming. I didn’t know who I was, or what my worth was, if I didn’t have my art.

Though I’d rather not have lost several years’ worth of art-making time, a part of me is grateful I went through that. It taught me that creatives need to have balance in their lives, and practice healthy habits like stretching and taking breaks! I am a huge proponent of warning my fellow artists to stop drawing if it hurts!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, I’m Kaycie! I’m an illustrator, webcomic artist, animator and podcaster!

I began my professional career working for a mobile/social gaming studio in the Bay Area, doing everything from animation, game assembly, and art direction. Five years later, I decided to pursue writing and drawing my long-form romance webcomic, “B-SIDE You”, which I still work on to this day.

I got into podcasts and digital streaming in 2018, and I am a host on podcasts “Animorphs Anonymous”, “Late Starters: A Pokemon TTRPG Podcast”, and the monthly Twitch stream “Art Corner”. I’ve guested on shows “Dungeons and Dracon Beams”, “Horse Girls”, and “Doodle Crew”. I’ve also helped create concept art and merchandise for several of these shows.

If you want to be my favorite client, give me characters to draw for you. I am well-versed in coming up with unique expressions, poses, costumes, and details that bring characters to life. One of my favorite projects was “Elements – Experiments in Character Design”, where I drew all the elements from the Periodic Table as humanoid characters!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

To have the power to create something from nothing. To take my own experiences, combined with things I love that inspire me, and channel it into an expression that is uniquely mine. To put that out into the world, to say “Hey, this is a part of me. I made this,” and have that potentially resonate with someone else. I have always been shy and reserved, and art is the main way I connect with people.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

We’re living in a scary time where real human artists and creatives are being replaced with generative AI/large language models, which have proven time and again to produce less reliable and lower quality results, all in the name of saving companies money. Jobs for artists are quickly disappearing, and it’s very hard to create art when creatives can’t afford to feed themselves or pay bills.

The best thing society can do is champion human creatives. Stop using and normalizing generative AI when possible. Share that book you loved with your friends, and leave a review for it. Subscribe to an artists’ Patreon, or buy a sticker from them. Provide credit to the original artist when you share an image or a meme online. Try to remember that the art you enjoy looking at on the internet was made by a person, and it took time and dedication to make that image. Even a friendly comment on an artist’s post can go a long way!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kcdstudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kcdstudios
• Other: https://bsky.app/profile/kcdstudios.bsky.social
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