Illustrator :: Gradient Mesh - Coloring Individual Points

I'm trying to practice on myself using the gradient mesh tool… I understand the point made about making many smaller meshes e.g. eyes, nose, mouth…
 
I open an image of myself >open the layers panel and lock my image…Create a new blank layer…Then I select my pen tool…Start making an outline of my face, approximately 1-3 pixels all the way around the outside…Then I go up to the menu bar and click on, "Object >Create Gradient Mesh" - 15 rows by 15 columns…then I use the selection tool and select the whole mesh that was just created…then set the opacity to 0%…Using the direct selection tool to select & move anchor points and handles as needed to match light lines…then I use the mesh tool to select an anchor point to start coloring this is where I start to run into trouble…
 
after selecting my first anchor point to color, I select the color picker tool from the toolbox for some reason I'm not able to select that color beneath the mesh (the color underneath the selected anchor point)…
 
I played around & so far the only way I'm able to select the color beneath is by moving the whole mesh to the side, but… I end up losing the reference point of where that anchor was…