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Mix master
Going for the color directly is impractical, in my opinion, simply because it is impossible to duplicate nature in paint. You can't recreate the red of a rose in sunlight in paint. If the hue is correct then the value will be dark. If the value is correct then the hue will be bleached out.
What you perceive in reality is the result of additive color (light) mixtures while the colors you mix are the result of subtractive color (pigment) mixtures.
The key is to understand the relationships you see before you, and while maintaining them, ratio the colors and values down so that the relationships are recreated within the realm of pigment.
Ultimately you must choose between value and color. If you favor form then value comes first.
As a teacher, I have had great results teaching color mixing by having my students separate the three aspects of color: hue, value and chroma.
The greatest painters were also great scientists (objective observers who constanly strove to understand why the world appeared to them the way it did) and clever thinkers who never attempted to copy nature, but strove to enhance it instead. The choices they made, based on their analysis of nature, is what defines their creations as works of pure genius.
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