Tips & Techniques

Small lessons, real skills.

Free tutorials on watercolour, urban sketching, and pen & ink — each one focused on a specific skill or stage of the painting process. Dip in wherever you want to improve, or take a full course to follow the method from start to finish.

Tudor manor house with detailed timber framing and a textured stone wall, a hand holding a fine-liner pen resting on the page

Adding Detail with Fine Liners

Layers of careful looking become storytelling — learn how to define the key elements that give your sketch character and meaning.

Loose watercolour washes over ink linework of a canal bridge with narrowboats moored beside it

Adding Watercolour to the Big Shapes Outline

Apply vibrant colour washes that set the mood and emotion of your sketch, without overworking the paint.

Brick bridge arch with a dark tonal reflection in the water below, a hand holding a brush pen resting on the page

Adding Tone & Depth with Brush Pens

Use tone and shade to push your sketch from flat to three-dimensional — adding structure and depth with every mark.

Cluster of harbour cottages painted in mixed warm hues of orange, green, pink and cream

Mixing Watercolours Using a Limited Palette

Simplify your colour choices with a limited palette so your colours always work together and complement each other naturally.

Pure ink linework of a village street with timber-framed cottages, reduced to structural shapes, a hand holding a pencil resting on the page

How to Simplify a Scene Into Big Shapes

Take a complex scene and break it down into its main compositional elements — the foundation of every confident sketch.

Core Skills Bundles

Want to practise one skill in depth?

Short, focused exercise sets — not a full painting, just the specific technique worth mastering on its own. More bundles are on the way; browse the full Core Skills collection →

Watercolour and ink sketch of a cottage roofline with terracotta tiles, a chimney, and a section of thatch

£15

Roofs & Tiles

Six focused exercises covering front elevations, perspective, tile texture, chimneys, thatched roofs, and exaggerated perspective.

6 Videos · Pen & Ink · Urban Sketching

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Watercolour and ink sketch of an old European cobbled street with weathered brick and stone walls

£15

Bricks & Stonework

Five focused exercises covering weathered walls, cracked slabs, and scattered pebbles — reading real stone and pavement texture with confidence.

5 Videos · Pen & Ink · Urban Sketching

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Pen and ink sketch of an old wooden doorway with stone surrounds, drawn in sepia tonal ink linework

£15

Pen & Ink Sketching

Six focused exercises building a complete sketch with only fine liners and Tombow brush pens, from pen placement through to a finished drawing — no watercolour required.

6 Videos · Pen & Ink · Urban Sketching

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Free Course

Ready to paint a complete scene?

Start the free Beddgelert Bridge course and follow the four-stage process from first sketch to finished painting.

Start the Free Course →

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