How I built a Luxury Life as an Illustrator through Storybook Living
- Yulia Potts
- Apr 8
- 5 min read
I heard that real artists starved in attics, but I chose a sunlit cottage studio and had enough velvet dresses to make Cinderella’s sisters blush… and when I bought my first sable brush… I realised luxury could, actually, be a driving creative force rather than not.
But first the belief of not being a real artist to sell the pictures and earn and next, the mindset of scarcity towards creative ways (it is when I felt overwhelmed and paralyzed to create thinking that illustrating fairytales was a silly waste of time) almost killed my creativity.
Can you believe it - I felt embarrassed to say I was drawing fairies and unicorns for people who wrote stories about them? I thought it would be much cooler to say I was ruling my office in a corporate world and be able to purchase luxury things…
Living so remotely did not make it possible.
Especially taking into account the statistics like "Research released by Creative New Zealand that 44% of creative professionals supplement their creative income with other work, with a median income from creative pursuits alone at NZD 19,500 per year.
That was a truly poisoned fairy tale for me and I had to come up with another one. As I loved fairies and unicorns as in the old world storybooks. I loved luxury life too… but in ways way broader than one might think.
Morning dates with myself along the poplar framed driveway turned out to be invaluable for nurturing the sprouts of enthusiasm each day and replenishing the inner sources of inspiration that can easily be left out unattended in the line of everyday responsibilities.
The luxury of an uninterrupted thought in the morning made these dates especially wonderful. It was a time to look in my soul for a hint of how I wanted to feel that day; to wander barefoot on dewy lawn, sip fragrant coffee from a joyfully orange, thick-walled cup while reading inspiring poetry; to write down intentions for the day in my journal… these luxurious practices are not about possessing the objects. They are about being fully indulgently experiencing a moment happening at a unit of time.
It all was bringing a sense of peace and clarity within. Love for life blossomed in me. It was a love so abundant that I couldn’t help but share it.
Creating visual stories out of abundance of feeling was much more prolific rather than happening out of fear of poverty.
It was my personal breaking point to allow myself to immerse in the creative values I adored all my life and I started ignoring trends and stereotypes.
Living on the land working hard with nothing to look forward to?! Hm.. What a lie! There is so much - the rooster’s song instead of an alarm clock; dramas of the birds… The stories are unfolding in front of my eyes all the time! You should hear the concerts by wild and not so life - luxurious offerings just over the porch of the house!
And so many other ones:
I learnt to notice the colour palettes of nature, generously offered redesigned every season! I discovered the healing power of dirty hands, and keeping nice nails (it is truly possible, trust me!).
But what about a silk morning gown hugging the shoulders? The dew on the soles of my sleepy feet? Steaming hot coffee in fine china? And, of course, heirloom brushes, good quality watercolor paper, exclusive paints? And then, at the end of a work day - meals near the fire?
Here are the examples of 5 Unconventional Luxuries that can make my day super productive:
Dawn Silence as Creative Fuel
While the world is still asleep, I borrow its silence. The roosters call does not count. This is when ideas flow effortlessly and coffee gives its taste to the fullest extent. My luxury? Taking back the dawns from hustle culture and basking in their richness of sensations.
Nature is the ultimate art teacher.
The greeting of pine trees in the mornings moved by the winds provides the lesson on shadows. The pink filter from the candy cotton pink morning clouds - on chroma… Besides… studies shown the green spaces boosted creativity by 47 percent! Luxury here for me is catching the golden hour at a natural setting to do all the studies I can while it lasts!
Heirloom tools over trends
Did you know that some sable brushes in 1912 cost more than my oven! I do not have a brush of this kind, but I prefer the best tool collaborator as possible. Several hundred dollars for watercolours? Yes if we get on well and the set promises to love my style and paper.
Meals for luxury life.
I fry eggs in a cast iron pan and serve them in antique china plates with gold rim not for instagram but for the ritual that sets my levels of aesthetics for the day. Did you know that beautiful plating sparks 28 percent more dopamine? I found it out in the Journal of Aesthetics.
When clients come for live workshops here to My Honeyland, we enjoy the wholesome nourishing and beautiful food. They are not buying just an art workshop, they are buying the full aesthetical experience of nature cottage creative luxury.
Dressing for the Situation (how silk improves strokes)
Dressing like a storybook heroine from the 19th century puts me in the mood and makes me move the certain way, imagine the certain way and choose the strokes the certain way and I love it. Beautiful dresses work like a creative exoskeleton for me. I weed in the garden in a silk skirt… that is why I have aprons. You may laugh at me being impractical but feeling the luxury of
silk dress to the skin is a love story on its own. By the way, a Kyoto University study found that artists in “role attire” produce more detailed work. Regardless if it is silk or velvet or something else. What would you choose?
The Storybook Alchemy System
Art is really a luxury: the numerous layers, the time of waiting for those layers to dry, the golden transparency, the story unfolding on a paper turns the quality illustration into the portal to the enchanted realm…I do not price my work per hour as I do not sell hours - I sell the decades it took to master the skill of living inside my art and making it possible for the client - to get enchanted by travelling into their dreams through what I create for them.
The Final Flourish
If you, like me, belong to an older tale and love the unconventional luxury and time travel through lifestyle and art, join me in My Honeyland not as a student, but as a fellow traveller.
On my YouTube channel I share:
The unspoken mystery behind the illustrations
Secret walks through the pines where stories find me
Gentle proof that storybook lifestyle is real and can be lived by anyone
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