Very impressive, this is very inspirational. How do you get the colors and tones so right from the start?
I have a feeling the answer will be practice and observation as most things in life :) but even so it musted be directed practice and observation, right?
For the color, you can always open a photo in your photoshop using the palette you like, reduce the number of color a bit and pick directly the color on it.
Then, you'll get used to it and you won't need this reference palette picture.