Watercolour masterclass Paint Big Ben & Westminster

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
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website - https://www.gerryludlowart.com
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