Sometimes

There are times I feel as if Iam doing the same "wrong" thing over and over again. I say this with specific reference to my skin tones when I paint people. Occasionally I feel as if I get it but it seems accidental more than not. I would really like to change this.

Don't think I haven't researched this, for I have. I have certainly looked at other people's work in hopes of finding the right palette. I think though this is one of those occasions where I need to paint my way to a solution. It isn't that instruction is not useful nor that planning won't help. It is that sometimes, or often, one can only truly understand the idea (or technique) by doing it and doing it again just to prove it isn't a fluke. Though there is a component of habit making and practical application, I believe I am talking about something else. There is a part of your mind, or brain, that begins to relate to the world through the act of painting. Perhaps it is a learning process or perhaps it is tied to the act of creation but one does not feel as if they truly "get" something unless it happens while they are painting.
I should mention that in my experience that there is a zone when one is painting. There are many things related to painting and that use the same materials but are not what I am going to call true painting. I am not going to say that good things cannot be made outside of that zone. To use a sex metaphor, there are a lot of things that can be mistaken for making love but you always know when you are making love and when you are doing something else.
Regardless of my beliefs in this it is true that I will have to put in the time. To put in the time exclusively for this purpose, to find the tones I can feel good about when I am looking at my own work.