Kasey Golden: Art Supply Reviews and Honest Career Talk from a Working Illustrator
Kasey Golden is the art YouTube equivalent of a friend who lets you browse their sketchbook and tells you which markers are a waste of money. With 1.15 million subscribers and 229 million total views across 760+ videos, the Canadian illustrator has built her channel on a simple formula: test art supplies thoroughly, show your sketchbook honestly, and talk about the creative career without sugarcoating it.
She started the channel in November 2014 and has been consistent since. Her own description has evolved over the years. As she put it herself on her channel: "2017 Kasey" was focused on watercolor illustrations, while the current version focuses on her webcomic (Sketch Scouts) while still trying new art supplies, goofing off in her sketchbook, and livestreaming on Twitch. That evolution is part of what makes the channel trustworthy. You are watching someone whose career has changed over time, not someone pretending they figured everything out years ago.
Art Supply Reviews: The Backbone of the Channel
The supply review content is where Kasey has the most direct impact on her audience's purchasing decisions. She reviews sketchbooks, watercolor paints, colored pencils, markers, pens, and a wide range of other materials with a thoroughness that goes well beyond most YouTube reviews. Rather than showing the product and making a few observations, she tests materials through actual use, creating artwork with them and assessing performance across multiple techniques.
Her sketchbook reviews are particularly comprehensive. She tests paper quality through multiple media, assesses how the paper handles wet and dry media, evaluates binding and cover durability, and notes whether the paper buckles with watercolor or bleeds with markers. These reviews have become a reference for artists trying to choose between the dozens of sketchbook options on the market.
The watercolor paint reviews cover both student-grade and professional-grade paints, with honest comparisons of pigment quality, transparency, granulation, and value. She recommends student-grade paints when they perform well for their price and calls out professional-grade paints that do not justify their premium. This balanced approach reflects actual experience with the materials rather than a reflexive preference for expensive brands.
For comparison, Jazza also does supply reviews but with more entertainment and less depth. Kasey's reviews are more granular and more useful for artists who are already committed to a medium and need to make specific purchasing decisions.
Sketchbook Tours: More Than Show and Tell
Kasey's sketchbook tour videos are among her most popular content. These are not just page-by-page flips. She walks through completed sketchbooks discussing the materials used, the techniques explored, and the thinking behind specific pieces. The tours are reflective discussions of the creative process, including the experiments that worked and the ones that did not.
The tours also demonstrate her range across media. A single sketchbook might contain watercolor, colored pencils, markers, gouache, and felt art. This multi-media approach is valuable for artists who are exploring different media rather than committed to a single approach. It also makes the content more varied than channels that focus on one medium exclusively.
The Teeny Weeny Art Challenge and Creative Experiments
Kasey is known for her Teeny Weeny Art Challenge, where she creates artwork at miniature scale. She has also made art with unconventional materials including coffee, tea, wine, color-changing nail polish, and even her own blood (with a disclaimer telling viewers not to harm themselves). These experiments show the same principle Jazza demonstrates on his channel: understanding your fundamentals lets you create compelling work with anything. But Kasey's version is quieter and more process-oriented, less focused on entertainment and more on genuine material exploration.
Creative Career Discussions: The Honest Voice
The most distinctive aspect of Kasey's channel is her willingness to discuss the realities of a creative career without the filtered optimism that dominates most art YouTube content. She covers pricing your work, dealing with creative block, managing the business side of freelance illustration, and navigating the emotional challenges of making art for a living.
She does not present a simplified success narrative. She engages with the difficulties, the uncertainties, and the practical realities that most working artists face. This honesty is one of the reasons her audience trusts her. For emerging illustrators trying to figure out whether a creative career is viable, Kasey's career content is more useful than the motivational content that fills most art channels.
The Webcomic and Merchandise Ecosystem
Kasey has expanded beyond YouTube into a webcomic called Sketch Scouts and a merchandise line that includes prints, stickers, patches, and physical comic books (Prickle and Pear, volumes 1 and 2). She also has a second channel called Sock Kasey and livestreams art and games on Twitch.
This ecosystem matters because it demonstrates the actual business model of a working illustrator in 2026. YouTube ad revenue is one stream. Patreon is another. Merchandise sales, webcomic monetization, and Twitch are additional streams. For artists trying to understand how to build a sustainable creative career, watching Kasey operate across these platforms is instructive in itself.
What the Channel Does Not Do Well
Kasey's content is not structured. There is no curriculum, no progression, no organized series. If you want to learn watercolor fundamentals from the ground up, you are better off with a structured course or a channel like Will Kemp Art School for painting fundamentals. Kasey's content is a supplement, not a replacement for systematic instruction.
The upload schedule has become less predictable as she has shifted focus toward her webcomic. This is a natural evolution for a working artist, but it means the channel is less reliable as a consistent content source than it was during its peak tutorial period.
The content is also firmly in the beginner-to-intermediate range. Advanced artists will not find much here that challenges them technically. If you are looking for advanced instruction, Istebrak offers more rigorous critique, and Marco Bucci provides deeper painting theory.
Final Verdict: Who Is This Actually For?
Kasey Golden is for illustrators and art supply enthusiasts who want reliable, honest information about materials and a realistic view of what a creative career looks like. If you are trying to decide which watercolor set to buy, which sketchbook handles your media, or whether freelance illustration is as romantic as it sounds, Kasey's channel is one of the best resources on YouTube.
If you want structured instruction, advanced technique, or entertainment-first content, look elsewhere. Kasey's value is in her honesty, her material knowledge, and her willingness to show the unglamorous side of making art for a living. That combination is rarer than it should be.
