During my research for the contemporary project I stumbled across Jackson Pollock and Gerhard Richter, both are well known for their techniques used to create their paintings. Pollock was known as an action painter; this is when the method used to create the painting is more important than the outcome. His style of drip painting using hardened brushes, sticks and basting syringes to apply the paint to the canvas from all different directions caused the action to flow from the instrument into the energy portrayed in the painting. Richter developed a technique where he dragged the paint across the canvas using a squeegee, usually over paintings and photography creating defaced imagery.

I am very intrigued by the way both Pollock and Richter work and so would like to devise my own way of working inspired by these two techniques. The idea of an action painter catches my eye and so does the idea of defacing imagery. Mixing these two together I have come up with a way of working by applying paint using ping pong balls, by covering the balls in paint and then bouncing them onto a large image or drawing. Where the paint goes on this image will be out of my control and hopefully, the splashes and prints from the balls will capture the movement and energy onto the paper, like how Pollock captured this in his paintings. The photograph or drawing underneath will be a portrait, as I am mainly considering how defacing portraits can cause the viewer to be uncomfortable. This is inspired by the way Richter applies paint onto photographs of people.