Big Ben — Watercolour Painting Tutorial

In this watercolour tutorial, I show you how to paint Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and a classic red London bus by simplifying a very complex city scene into clear, connected shapes. Rather than getting lost in architectural detail, this demo focuses on shape, tone, loose washes and confident brushwork to create a strong, readable painting. You’ll see how I reduce Westminster to blocks of colour, control washes on rough paper, and add just enough detail to suggest windows, traffic and pedestrians. This is a great exercise if you struggle with: Busy urban scenes Architectural watercolour Knowing what to leave out Keeping city paintings loose and fresh Painted on quarter-sheet Saunders Waterford rough paper, using a limited palette and a small selection of brushes. Perfect for intermediate beginners and anyone wanting to loosen up their cityscapes. Chapters (with timestamps) 00:00 Introduction – Simplifying a complex London scene 00:11 Analysing Westminster & reducing it to shapes 01:05 Initial sketch & getting proportions right 01:56 First wash – sky and buildings 03:09 Road wash & keeping things simple 04:12 Main building wash & working wet-in-wet 05:20 Painting Big Ben & avoiding the clock face 07:02 Loose architectural details 08:29 Varying colour for interest 10:20 Background trees & colour temperature 11:08 Painting the office buildings 13:45 Mixing and painting the red London bus 15:36 Road texture & dry brush 16:20 Final details on Big Ben 18:40 Street details, cars & pedestrians 21:06 Finishing the bus & shadows 25:16 Final adjustments & clock face 28:05 Finished painting reveal Instagram-   / gerryludlowartwork   website - https://www.gerryludlowart.com #artist #watercolours#landscapes##Westminster #London #Watercolour #WatercolourPainting #ArtTutorial #LooseWatercolour #PaintingTutorial #ArtClass #WatercolourArt #CreativeProcess #ArtInspiration #LearnToPaint #ArtCommunity #WatercolourTechniques #PaintingTips #ArtEducation #ArtisticJourney #WatercolourArtist #ArtVideo #PaintingWithWatercolour #ArtForBeginners #WatercolourLessons #UrbanSketching #LondonArt #ArtVlog #ArtisticExpression #WatercolourWorkshop #ArtisticSkills #ArtisticDevelopment #ExploreArt