The Guitar Player

The elements of art in “The Guitar Player” are that it is a realistic and ancient painting. This painting, as well as all of Vermeer’s paintings looks realistic. His shading and color choice are so real and human like. The facial expression gives the character, life and personality. It has certain qualities that make it look ancient, such as the dress the girl is wearing and the way her hair is put up and the old fashion guitar that she is using.
The medium of the artwork is an oil painting done on canvas.
Vermeer excelled in portraying comfortable interior scenes that are created with mathematical clarity and symmetry. He worked well exposing light to his artwork and directing attention toward a specific person or object using tonal values. The design is organized by having the main focus, the girl playing the guitar to the left of the painting, drawn the biggest with the most light shining on her. All attention is drawn to her. The right side of the painting is dark and empty. It is shown as being further off in the distance.
Vermeer works very well with space and fills up the entire canvas. The distance is closely limited focusing mainly on the girl playing the guitar. There isn’t much more going on in the artwork. Vermeer is great on detail and has another painting hanging on the wall along with books on a desk and a coat hanging over a chair. Everything is drawn big and close up and you can notice even very little details. It is drawn from the perspective that he is watching this girl play the guitar.
“The Guitar Player” has both dark and light accents. The girl is illuminated by the light accent, and the dark accent shows the back corner of the room, where it is quiet and empty. Vermeer paints with such a fine touch that the transition between color and shading is not noticeable and does not produce lines. When ta
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