Art Trip in a Spoon

what I did in Colorado

Hi! I’m Kayla Stark, an illustrator working primarily in the children’s publishing world. I write about illustration, process, publishing, and my life in general. Join in! Everyone’s welcome! All posts are free for everyone—upgrading to a paid subscription helps me continue writing these and supports all readers. Thank you!

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Before it’s too far from my mind, I have to write about a recent trip to Colorado! This was my first time visiting the state (unless you count quick stops at the Denver airport, which I don’t)!

I went with two friends (also illustrators!) Ava Wolf and Katie Turner!

Bear Lake: There’s a teeny, tiny person fishing in the photo. Can you find them?

stole this from Ava’s newsletter. :)

Ava’s family has a place in Cuchara 🥄¹, a teeny, tiny, little “town” a couple hours south of Colorado Springs—perfect for a short art retreat.

As we got closer to the town, I saw HUGE rocks like a long, jagged dragon spine zigzagging through the mountains! “Wow!” I said to Ava and Katie, “Do you ever think about how amazing it is that we live on a PLANET?!”

This became the refrain for the weekend.

Hiking to mountainside lakes and seeing trout - “Wow, we live on a planet!”

Dozens of grasshoppers jumping all around us - “Wow, we live on a planet!”

Seeing the WHOLE valley stretched out below us from Cordova Pass - “Wow, we live on a planet!”

Have you ever tried to take a picture of a mountain or any beautiful landscape? It’s SO BEAUTIFUL and vast when we are seeing it with our eyeballs, but on a phone camera…womp womp…it looks shrimpy and sad by comparison.

In lieu of a just a bunch of phone pictures, we spent some time drawing on location.

Okay, there are a few phone pictures. I like this one. Blue Lake

watercolor and ink

I really want to get better and more interested in drawing landscapes…I do.
I just get bored.
The trick (probably) is to learn how to draw them in my own style², and focus on smaller details, but at this early stage it’s all…

“Wanting to draw landscapes, but not wanting to draw landscapes because you don’t really know how YOU draw landscapes, and the only way to learn is by drawing landscapes. (repeat cycle)”

Cordova Pass - I really wish you could see it in person!

sketched with a marker that was slowly running dry

I fantasized about drawing with my Sailor Fude fountain pen on top of a mountain, wind blowing in my hair, as I effortlessly filled a sketchbook reflecting the beauty around me.

But, like me, my Sailor Fude pen does better under pressure. Once we got to the top of the mountain…

…it exploded.

So, instead I give you an illustrated list of animals we saw over the course of the trip, drawn quickly with my cleaned fountain pen³ weeks later while sitting in sweats at my desk. *very sexy illustrator lifestyle*

My fountain pen ran out of ink after the grouse. From there I switched to a dip pen (thinner lines).

Back at the house we sang karaoke, played ping pong, played a board game called “Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth”🤠🤣, made up some of our own games, AND we made fun presentations and actually presented them to each other while drinking wine. It was really fun! Find friends that will take the time for making silly PowerPoints together. 💛

a tree behind the house

This little creek is in the backyard…ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

One day, during lunch, I led Katie and Ava in a quick ideation exercise! It’s so easy and something I do pretty often when I need direction, or when I’m trying to come up with a collection of illustrations to do, etc.

I’ll walk you through it in a future post!

Here’s mine. You just need paper, something to write with, and a way to pick random numbers.

I didn’t use half the art supplies I brought with me and we were pretty ambitious with everything we wanted to do. It’s hard for me to be realistic on what I’ll have energy for and not set extremely high expectations for an art trip. Going to a new place didn’t magically make me better at art. But I did take time to notice things (animals, chairs, nature), and was visually stimulated enough to make new connections!

Mostly I just feel grateful that I got to spend quality time with good friends, and happy to be reminded that we LIVE ON A PLANET!

A perfect little mushroom we found…here…on EARTH!

Goodbye from me and my gas station friend.

As always, thanks for reading! 😘

xoxo

1. Some friends told me that Cuchara is “Spoon” in Spanish!

2. ugh sometimes I hate that word

3. and my trusty nib pen after the fountain pen ran out of ink…