09:00AM - Arrive at the Club.
I got there at about five to nine. At first I was worried that nobody else would arrive until half nine (the usual time), and that I'd be standing out in the cold for half an hour, but then I realised that it was Thursday - the day that the Club usually hosts its weekly car boot sale. The main entrance wasn't open, but the sports hall was. So I just cut through the car boot sale and went to the room I was working in.

09:15AM - Deadline for having overalls on.
I'd left my overalls in the Chillout Room, where I was working, so there wouldn't be a big faff to find them. I had them on by nine o'clock, so already I was way ahead of my plan.

11:30AM - Girl's hair painted.
This was where the real work began. Tim and Vicky still hadn't arrived, so rather than wait I gave myself a good head start and got going. The caretaker of the building, Gordon, came in for a bit of a chinwag, stood watching me paint for a while (I'm starting to think that art is a spectator sport) and then made me a cup of tea. 'Twas lovely!

I already had a good idea of what colours I'd be using. I wanted the strands to be painted in three groups of colours. The first, fading green to yellow, was done yesterday. The second, fading magenta to yellow to orange, I'd made a good start on. I finished this, and then painted the remaining strands of hair fading dark blue to electric blue. Since I knew exactly what colours and techniques were required, it just took persistence. I finished the hair at about eleven o'clock, which put me forty-five minutes ahead of schedule. Vicky and Tim arrived while I was working on this stage, as did Lewis and William. No other team members would come in over the course of the day.

01:30PM - Girl's skin, clothes etc painted.
The hair was easy enough to do, since my idea didn't require it to look too realistic. When it came to the girl's skin, however, I had a bit of a panic. I find skin tones very difficult to paint. Give me a pack of Crayolas and I could do it easily, but in paint... well, let's say that mixing colours isn't one of my strong points.

I started off with the darkest shade, burnt sienna, and at first used the same 'feathering' technique that I did on the hair. Unfortunately, due to the lack of water on the brush (I wasn't going to use watered-down paint on a wall), it didn't gradiate very well. I realised I'd have to mix a variety of browns, ranging from fairly pale peach tones, medium tones and darker tones.

For the base colour, I used a goodly sized dollop of white, a little bit of yellow and a little bit of burnt sienna. The white and brown gave it more of a skin colour, and the yellow ensured that the girl wouldn't look like a zombie - it brought a bit of warmth to the colour. In pencils, I achieve the same effect with a light shading of yellow over the entire area of exposed skin prior to the application of browns, oranges, blacks or whatever else I'd need. So, I had my base colour. I painted the whole skin area in that, and then just added bits of the burnt sienna gradually to build up the shading.

I did the top in much the same way. I mixed a lovely purple colour, painted the whole thing in that, then went back to it afterwards applying bits of white here and there for highlights, and black for shadows. I finished this part of the piece at about one, which meant I was an hour and fifteen minutes ahead of schedule.

02:00PM - Mural properly outlined + highlighted.
With the whole mural coloured, I was sorely tempted to just leave it as it was. Most of the scruffy rudimentary outline was now covered by the colouring, and I reckoned it didn't look too bad when it was viewed as most art is supposed to be viewed - from as far away as possible. However, I had so much time left and so much tidying up to do that I decided to put an outline and highlights on after all.

In the end, I only put the outline on where I felt it mattered: around the arms, around the face and eyes and around the girl's top. The hair looked fine - if not better - without. I then applied dabs of white here and there for highlights - on her beads and on the eyes. Despite the eyes being closed, a few anime-style dabs of white gave them a bit of shine. Indeed, you'll notice a lot of manga/anime artists do exactly the same! I had this done at half one.

02:30PM - Finishing touches. Canvasses hung.
Since I only had one of the pictures finished, I decided to leave it. The mural was finished, so I found myself twiddling my thumbs, making good use of Tim's floor, staring up at what I'd previously thought I'd never achieve. Such a large picture in two days! My A2 Art Exam Piece was a quarter of the size, and that took me three days!

I've proven to myself that I can, when pushed, complete paintings on an immense scale in a short space of time. So, satisfied with my efforts, I helped William finish off the walls in the Chillout Room, and got to St. Helens with time to waffle around before I had to...

03:30PM - Be at the college building for Basic Skills session.
We had to do two assessments - one in Maths, one in English. I got Level Two in both, which I believe is quite good - and I didn't even use a calculator for the more difficult Maths questions! I just thought about it and figured it out myself! It may have taken me a fair bit but I managed. I feel really clever now!