Rating: 
Summary: Great art, eye candy
Review: Great paintings, some of the best I've seen. Helpful demos. Some aspects of instruction should be overlooked (watercolor clock) but brilliant paintings. Get the book to see some great art, but don't expect to instantly paint like this--its far too advanced. 5 stars for art, 1 star for instruction = 3 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Art of this calibre can't be taught
Review: Great paintings. I feel the paintings in this book are almost too great, and too difficult to emulte. That being said there are a few step by step demos that unveil the mystery a bit. The book is great because of the calibre of the art. However, the teaching idea of the book is a watercolor clock that is pure gimmick and conveys nothing. The revolutionary "clock" is merely a list of possible paper wetnesses and paint consistencies with no aid to tell you when to use what. The hands of the clock serve no purpose and take them away and the fancy looking tool is nothing more than a list arranged as clock. In other words it loos like it is telling you something useful but it actually isn't. Utterly useless. 5 stars because of the quality of painting. 1 star for instruction.
Rating:
Summary: Inspirational and Delightful
Review: I had not heard of Joseph Zbukvic before but from the first time I saw this title, recommended by Amazon some months ago (while still not published), I felt moved to know more of this artist work. I have been reading and staring at the plates since I got this book some days ago, and in my oppinion it has one of the freshest and most beautiful watercolor works I've seen lately. I love to paint with watercolors and am now in the serious learning process. This book provided me with lots of inspiration and delight. I didn't feel like following his watercolor "clock" theory but have to admit that it might work fine to many other people. If you feel like you would love this book, may I recommend to take a look at a like of this one: A. Castagnet's "Watercolor painting with passion" (ISBN: 192983408X).
Rating:
Summary: ESSENTIAL
Review: I think this book is essential for one trying get a handle on this sometimes frustrating medium. One of the critical parts in watercolor painting is judging the amount of water in the paper and on the brush to get the effect one seeks. It's a tricky process but one which this friendly book makes understandable and attainable. I've been painting for 25 years and have bought scores of books on the subject, finding something useful to nearly all of them. But this book, along with two others, I consider to be MUSTS. The others are Robert Lovett's "The Art of Designing Watercolors" and Tony Couch's "Watercolor: You Can Do It."
Rating: 
Summary: No teaching involved in this book!
Review: If you want a book to learn from and instruction, don't buy this one.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book but not for beginners
Review: One of the most amazing things about this book besides it gorgeous illustrations is that it is not another cotton candy, trick laden, watercolor book by a workshop star.
The artist and the paintings are deep, challenging and beautifull though I am not thrilled by some color choices I am by the integrity and depth this fellow brings to a medium that can all too often be made into wall paper designs.
His work is not easily apporached or copied and that is refreshing and daunting at the same time. He says it best when he warns that skill can only come from work and not from tricks. It was an eye opener reading about the effects of dampness and the state of the pigments themselves.
I will be humbly working in his shadow for a loooooong while and loving evry moment.
Rating:
Summary: buy this book
Review: The approach that Mr. Joseph Zbukvic uses in his book is fascinating. For me, he takes the mystery out of painting watercolor and breaks it down into a more understandable approach. What I like about it is that he explains the different consistencies that paint should be when applied to the paper. His consistency of paint is described as: tea, coffee, milk, cream and butter. The dampness of paper is described as: dry, damp, moist, and wet. He ties these ideas together by using a concept of a clock. The concept of a clock is used to explain when and how paper and paint should be used together. An example of one of his demonstrations: laying in the first background wash to paper, the paper is dry and the paint is in the consistency of tea. His demonstrations in the book are clear and easy to understand especially with this "clock" method. He also writes very well and it is an enjoyable read. I love the way he paints and the price of the book alone is worth just looking at his paintings.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible Art...tiresome reading
Review: The art work is of the highest quality...the text is very poorly edited. What are "tyres"? (aka tires, like on a car), the writing is plagued with misspellings (maybe that's the way it's spelled in Australia!). Australiaisms abound to such a degree that I have no idea what their talking about.
Making tea, coffee, milk, etc. from paint becomes tiring. One of the demonstration paintings clearly shows the artist's full arm in the painting during the demostration but yet in the side bar describes the painting as 7"x12" (The Artist must have and extremely short arm!)
However, that said, the paintings are incredible and breathe-taking! I will be practicing and trying to duplicate these moody effects for a long time. It is amazing how much detail can be shown with so few brush stokes. Zubukvic really shines! Don't forget to get his friend Alvaro's book "Painting with passion". You can see how their styles are similar. A feast for the eyes and an insight as to how artists view the world. I wish all art books could be so splended. It's to bad these artist spend so much of their time in other parts of the world, I would love to be in their workshops.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning effects by manipulating the amount of moisture
Review: The example paintings in Joseph Zbukvic's "Mastering Atmosphere and Mood" are stunning. By manipulating the amount of moisture ON the paper and IN the wash of paint, Zbuvic creates strong contrast between ethereal washes and densely painting architectural or landscape elements.Zbuvic uses a device he calls a clock, which consists of a circle divided into wedges; the left side gauging the amount of water on the paper (from shiny wet to bone dry) and the right side gauging the amount of water mixed into the paint, from weak "tea" to "butter" or thick paint. This is rather original, but it does communicate an awareness of the moisture levels in both paint and paper to the artist. One example painting that really stands out is a rainy scene of downtown Melbourne, Australia. The street is lightly washed to allow the paper beneath to create the white shine of a wet street; the buildings and headlight reflections are painted more densely to provide either solidity (the building) or glow (the headlights.) Most books on watercolor demonstrate a layered method of washes followed by glazes (paint over paint.) The end result can often be muddy for beginners in watercolor. This method is quite different in how it describes laying down washes and glazes, and can help the watercolorist achieve transparent atmosphere effects by paying attention to the water. If you've run into a brick wall with your current method of painting, this might be a great book to give a boost to your technique.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning effects by manipulating the amount of moisture
Review: The example paintings in Joseph Zbukvic's "Mastering Atmosphere and Mood" are stunning. By manipulating the amount of moisture ON the paper and IN the wash of paint, Zbuvic creates strong contrast between ethereal washes and densely painting architectural or landscape elements. Zbuvic uses a device he calls a clock, which consists of a circle divided into wedges; the left side gauging the amount of water on the paper (from shiny wet to bone dry) and the right side gauging the amount of water mixed into the paint, from weak "tea" to "butter" or thick paint. This is rather original, but it does communicate an awareness of the moisture levels in both paint and paper to the artist. One example painting that really stands out is a rainy scene of downtown Melbourne, Australia. The street is lightly washed to allow the paper beneath to create the white shine of a wet street; the buildings and headlight reflections are painted more densely to provide either solidity (the building) or glow (the headlights.) Most books on watercolor demonstrate a layered method of washes followed by glazes (paint over paint.) The end result can often be muddy for beginners in watercolor. This method is quite different in how it describes laying down washes and glazes, and can help the watercolorist achieve transparent atmosphere effects by paying attention to the water. If you've run into a brick wall with your current method of painting, this might be a great book to give a boost to your technique.
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