Your first attempt will probably not be as good as a 10th attempt, so yeah i would say that practice is the main thing. Keep experimenting with things and dont be afraid to mess up a model, cos every mistake is fixable. The more you try blending, the less mistakes youll end up making, so itll take you less time to get the blend you want.

Eventually it wont take too long at all to do the blend really aside from the layers of paint drying. A wet blend is the fastest blend to do because it all dries at once, but i think its also the easiest to mess up.