The Art Gallery

If an artist draws, paints, or sketches someone they deeply love, that person will soon drift away — or the relationship will end.

There is no truth to it — this is a poetic myth, not a real phenomenon. It survives because of confirmation bias: artists tend to draw the people they love most during periods of transition, insecurity, or when a relationship is already changing. When that bond naturally ends, the portrait becomes a painful reminder, making it easy to mistake timing for cause. The “curse” framing itself spread recently as viral social media folklore, though it echoes much older myths about portraits capturing a piece of their subject’s soul.

Contemporary Digital Folklore / Art Therapy & Behavioral Psychology

You have to be born with innate talent to become a great artist.

Decades of cognitive research show that deliberate, structured practice accounts for the vast majority of difference between beginners and experts. Natural aptitude mostly offers an early head start or interest spark, not a ceiling on what you can achieve. Skill in art is built through hand-eye coordination, muscle memory, and active visual analysis.

K. Anders Ericsson et al., “The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance” (Psychological Review)

Van Gogh sold only one single painting in his entire life.

While he genuinely struggled financially, the idea that he only sold one painting (The Red Vineyard in 1890) is an oversimplification. Art historians confirm he sold or commissioned several other works during his lifetime—including early portrait studies to an art dealer and works to his uncle Cor—and regularly bartered paintings and drawings in exchange for food, rent, and art supplies.

Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam) / Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Left-handed people are naturally worse at fine detail work, lettering, and precision drawing.

Handedness affects grip technique, lighting placement, and smudging control—not your precision or skill ceiling. Left-handed artists simply adapt their stroke direction, paper orientation, and drying times to fit their hand. Legendary masters of fine detail and drafting, including Leonardo da Vinci and M.C. Escher, were left-handed.

Fine Art Historical Archives / Journal of Motor Behavior

Watercolour is the easiest medium, so beginners should always start there.

While watercolour is cheap to buy and easy to set up, art instructors rate it as one of the hardest mediums to control. Because it is transparent, unpredictable when wet, and fast-drying, mistakes cannot be easily painted over or erased. Acrylic or gouache are much gentler starting points for beginners because you can paint over previous layers.

Royal Academy of Arts / Standard Fine Art Pedagogical Guidelines

Professional painters never use black straight from the tube—it is not considered a “real” colour.

Avoiding tube black became popular with Impressionism to keep shadows colorful, but using it is purely a stylistic choice, not an absolute rule. Countless masters—from Rembrandt and Édouard Manet to traditional Sumi-e ink painters and modern graphic artists—built iconic, high-contrast works directly around pure black pigments.

Color Theory & Painting Technique Manuals