Today we’d like to introduce you to Christy Sanderson.
Christy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started drawing daily in October 2015, but my creative journey started long before that. I started writing short stories when I was 9 or 10 years old, and that continued throughout high school and college. I moved to Houston from my hometown of Lafayette, Indiana in late 2001 and started an anime retail business with friends a few years after that. I started designing t-shirts for that business and they were so popular that we pivoted to all original merchandise and characters. In 2007, we changed the name of the company to BeKyoot. We vended at anime and pop culture conventions all over the US, often doing multiple a month. We had our first table at San Diego Comic Con in 2008, and have been going ever since.
Along the way, I figured out that these characters (who were based mostly off of my pets throughout the years), needed stories. So I started drawing comics. I figured out pretty quickly I wasn’t too good at that and needed to improve my drawing skills. That lead me to streaming my art online in the Twitch Creative community in 2015, and also finally starting a daily drawing habit that stuck. I’ll have 10 full years of drawing and posting online every day at the end of September this year. Once I got more confident in drawing, and faster, I started publishing comics once, then twice weekly, and began self publishing comic compilations in 2019. I’ll have my 6th volume of the Book of Kyoot available this summer.
My next goal is animating this world of characters I’ve built and making short films. 🙂
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has not been easy, for sure, but it has been interesting and challenging all the way! From building and running an ecommerce anime shop in the mid-2000’s, to going to conventions, learning how to manufacture products and build a completely original character brand, learning how to draw comics, self publish books, design plush toys, and finally how to adapt to social media and the constant fluidity therein, I’m in a constant state of learning. I get overwhelmed, frustrated, and tend to procrastinate when I’m exiting a comfort zone. But the best stuff happens outside of it. Whenever I’m feeling down, I almost always get a message from someone that helps me to keep going. It could be an email or, back in the late 2000’s, I’d even get snail mail letters or kind words of encouragement from people I don’t know, telling me how much they love the characters and stories. That keeps me going. I save them all in something I call the Kyoot File, to open in case of emergency.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I draw cute things and comics, of mostly animals, in a style that is somewhere between Studio Ghibli and Calvin and Hobbes. I do almost all of this in Adobe Illustrator. Recently I’ve started using Procreate more, and I also work in traditional media like copic markers and India inks. I have 17+ characters, and am working on learning to animate them. I think the thing I’m most proud of is inspiring the imagination of others, especially little kids. Or hearing that my characters and stories brought comfort and peace to someone during a rough patch.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I love reading, writing, drawing, cooking, good music, and movies. I love being outside in nature, and visiting with my family. I love running, boxing, and challenging myself physically and mentally. When I’m working, I can lose myself (and time) in drawing.
Pricing:
- Plushies – $25-35
- Books – $20+
- Stickers – $3-5
- Pins – $12
- Apparel – $25 and up
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bekyoot.com/ and shop.bekyoot.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/happipaper
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/bekyoot
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/bekyoot
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@artofbekyoot
- Other: https://tiktok.com/@happipaper
