Hello and welcome!
March '24 newsletter
As things are often lost in the sea of social media these days, I thought I’d start a newsletter. Don’t worry, I won’t drown you in emails, I’ll only do updates every so often when I have something new or exciting to talk about!
Introduction
Since this is my first newsletter, I thought I’d start with a bit of an introduction.
My name is Julie Campbell, and I’m an illustrator, comic artist and nature nerd living in Fife, Scotland.
I started my little illustration business in 2018, when I was being a stay at home mum to my two kids. I’ve always loved drawing, and have been drawing animals, landscapes and stories in my spare time since I can remember.
Nature is my other big love, and that’s actually the route my education went down. After a degree in zoology I worked in a wildlife record centre for a few years, and then as curator of natural history in a local museum where I gained my MA in Museum Studies. I then took some time off after a few years to focus on my family, started drawing more again, and Julie Campbell Illustration grew from there, a perfect mix of my loves of art and nature!
Upcoming projects
‘How to Watch Wildlife’
A couple of years ago I published my ‘Nature Notes’ family friendly wildlife journal. I love getting out in nature, learning more about my local wildlife and recording what I see, and I wanted a journal I could use to record what I see when I’m out and about. I needed something that prompted you to record the essentials like dates and times, but that also provides a flexible space to record notes, species and even sketches, so I created my own, and Nature Notes was born.
Ever since then, another little idea has been brewing in my mind. What about a friendly, little guide to how to get out and about and enjoy nature? In comics form? And so, the idea for ‘How to Watch Wildlife’ was born. Here’s a little promo blurb I’ve created for the comic.
I’m planning to run my first ever Kickstarter for this comic, so watch this space! I’m hoping to launch the campaign in the next few months.
Illustration
One thing I’ve decided to spend more time on this year is to draw for fun!
I noticed that over the last year or so I’ve really only been drawing for work. My sketchbook - normally such a source of joy and experimentation for me never leaves my work desk - only opened when I needed to sketch something out quickly for work.
I used to love drawing wacky creatures, fun characters and silly scenarios, just seeing what happened when I put pencil to paper, but in working hard to create my business I’d somehow lost the joy of just playing with my art.
So a couple of weeks ago I started building in some fun sketchbook time, away from my studio and desk, for no reason other than to just have fun! I carve out a little time, get comfy (away from my desk), open my sketchbook and see what happens, and I’m loving it!
I’ve been mostly drawing fun little creatures, and I seem to be making a series of them which I’ve been posting on my twitter account, here’s what I’ve got so far. It’s been a great little experiment for me, and now I look forward to sketchbook time.
Nature Notes
January and February hasn’t been a great few months for walks and wildlife spotting, largely due to all the rain we’ve been having, but I’ve still been getting out as much as I can and recording what I see.
Besides the weather, the winter is actually a really good time for watching birds. The trees are still mostly leafless so birds are easy to spot, and there are lots of exciting winter visitors to our shores to keep your eyes peeled for. Redwings and fieldfares are over from Scandinavia, and it’s a waxwing year, meaning many waxwings are visiting these shores. I know there have been many spotted in Fife earlier in the year but I haven’t managed to see any for myself - hopefully there still might be time!
Here’s a little species list of what I’ve seen so far this year. Hoping for some drier weather in March so I can get out more often!
The last weekend of January also brought the RSPBs Big garden Birdwatch which I love to participate in, here’s what I saw in my garden this year! Did you take part?
Out and about
It’s generally a quiet time of year work-wise where I’m mostly hunkered down at my desk working away, but I have a few markets and conventions booked for the next few months. Hope to see you there!
23rd March, The Yard Market: Vegan, The Steeple, Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4DG
6th April, Deecon, Dundee University Campus, Dundee.
20th April, The Yard Market, The Steeple, Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4DG
You can find me elsewhere online at my website, on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for reading, and I’ll hopefully…
