Check Out Katelyn McCaigue’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katelyn McCaigue.

Hi Katelyn, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I have been creating art and creatures since a very young age. My mother is an artist so my parents were very supportive of me pursuing the creative arts. I attended ASU and received my BFA in Drawing while also completing multiple years of a Graphic Design internship. I wasn’t sure what the future held for my passions so I wanted to also be skill in graphic design as a back up.

Since graduating college, I have been basically working two full time gigs. I have had multiple graphic design corporate over the last 10 years but I have also been pursing my art and personal business on the side. I started my own YouTube channel back in January of 2016 and started selling my artwork at comic conventions in 2013. It has been a hustle and a lot of work over these last 11 years. Juggling both has been a hard feat but every minute has been worth it. I grew a lot as an artist and those years refined my skills both in my craft and in managing my own business.

Starting this October, I will finally be pursing my art full time! the circumstances for this change were not really expected (I.E. being laid off from my day job) but I have been laying the ground work for this transition for years. It also just feels like the right time to give it a 120% try!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It honestly has had it’s ups and downs. It is like a country road that is partially paved. Some points in the route have been amazing and others, it was like driving over constant pot holes.

I had to learn some hard lessons through these years. One is how to manage your business inventory and finances. I sunk a lot of money into too much merchandise in the early days of my business. I thought certain prints or charms would sell great so I would buy a very large amount of stock. But unfortunately, I would sell maybe 1/5th of what I purchased which usually resulted in major loss of revenue. It took quite a few years and trial and error to figure out what does well with large stock or smaller stock.

Another struggle I had was figuring out my voice or what I wanted to create. It is a fine balancing act when it comes to being an online creative. Making original ideas and IPs is great but it is hard to attract an audience through that. But I also don’t think all creatives should go 100% into only doing trends and pop culture fan art. I kept losing myself to the online algorithms and leaning too much into trying to pull in a new audience with trends. This caused me to burn out and feel awful when those types of pieces didn’t do well. I was ignoring my original ideas and passion projects to try to get clicks and that caused a very unhealthy cycle to my creativity. It took a lot of self reflecting to finally get into my groove and balance. Now my percentage is 85% original artwork and passion projects and 15% fan art or trends. That has helped me both get my artwork out there but feel fulfilled doing what I am most passionate about.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in creature illustration and concept art and I love creating comics! Currently, I am pitching my new comic series, Fox Among Hounds, to multiple publishers. I plan to pursue this series as a webcomic if we do not secure a publisher. I am unbelievably excited for this series! It has been on my project backburner since 2018 and I have been itching to start it for years. Fox Among Hounds has become my main passion project and will be most of my focus once I go full time in October. I also have an amazing team helping me with it and I can’t wait to create it with them!

I am also known for my original Dungeons and Dragons monster manual called The Complete McCaigue Creature Compendium. I have been selling Volume 1 since 2019 and have Volume 2 on the way now! It is what my comic convention booth is best known for and I love talking to returning fans about their favorite monsters & how they used them in their games. I am so proud of these books and thankful for my amazing, creative friends who helped make them happen!

I think what sets me apart is my connection with my community. I am thankful for them and their support of all my creative endeavors! They also help me craft my monsters with voting on prompts and combos to create. They help keep my creativity fresh and really spur me on to keep making everyday!

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I have a few newsletters if you want to keep up with what I have going on! I have one for my comic series at www.foxamonghounds.com as well as my main art newsletter at www.katelynmccaigue.com/newsletter.

In terms of collaborating, I am always looking to help create awesome art for comics or original projects! You are more that welcome to shoot me a message at www.katelynmccaigue.com/contact.

If you would like to directly support me, you can visit me at one of my conventions or events, grab some goodies from my online store, or follow and back my projects on Kickstarter!

Contact Info:

• Website: katelynmccaigue.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/kmccaigue
• Facebook: facebook.com/kmccaigue
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/kmccaigue
• Twitter: twitter.com/kmccaigue
• Youtube: youtube.com/@katelynmccaigue
• Other: tiktok.com/@kmccaigue

Image Credits
For the two comic pages, please list the below credit line: Pencils, Line and Flats by Katelyn Blodgett. Colors by Erika Gulacsi. And for the photo of me drawing on the tablet in front of the crowd, please list the below credit line: Photo taken by Christopher Diego The picture of me sitting at a table with a sketch book, please add this image credit: Photo taken by Tyler Woodard