Despite being hired to make art for the aristocracy, Velázquez retained a strong devotion to depicting regular people and settings. He was able to overcome the outside forces of public perception, which saw this effort as useless or worthless, by making pieces that were so captivating that they could not be ignored. Velázquez's realistic, highly direct technique of portraying truth was far ahead of its time. He employed a variety of approaches to correctly express detail and its numerous intricacies, including free, loose brushstrokes, gradients of light, color, and shape, and attention to details that were unrivaled by his colleagues.