# BEGINNER - Painting Help! **URL:** \ **Category:** Tips, Tutorials and Help\ **Tags:** nomadsculpt, tutorial\ **Created:** [October 11, 2022, 11:25pm UTC](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/t/beginner-painting-help/8450 "2022-10-11T23:25:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Baeomi\_Draws](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.nomadsculpt.com/baeomi_draws/32/12031_2.png) [@Baeomi\_Draws](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/u/Baeomi_Draws)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 11:25pm UTC](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/t/beginner-painting-help/8450/1 "2022-10-11T23:25:31Z")
I am a complete beginner when it comes to Nomad. I have been using ProCreate for the past 5 or so years and wanted to expand to 3D art. I have been having the hardest time painting over my mold! I have been trying to figure this out for the past 24 hours and am getting increasingly frustrated. I have watched endless tutorials and feel super dumb because my layout does not look the same. I’m not able to paint over/shade my mold or any primitive shapes that I add. If I choose a color, the entire thing turns that color. I can’t find any info on this anywhere, and I don’t want to lose hope already…any tips? I’m not understanding how everyone is able to paint and shade using a brush and the whole model doesn’t switch colors. TY!! ---
**Author:** ![RogerRoger](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.nomadsculpt.com/rogerroger/32/33580_2.png) [@RogerRoger](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/u/RogerRoger)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 3:22am UTC](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/t/beginner-painting-help/8450/2 "2022-10-12T03:22:27Z")
Quite a few ways to start painting. I’ll touch on a few of them: 1. Material Menu. Here you can enable stroke painting as well as paint all (whole object). 2. Painting with a sculpting tool. While in a tool’s brush menu, you can enable painting. This will paint the areas you affect with the tool. 3. Paint tool. This tool will paint as if a paint brush - not sculpting on or changing the model. So there’s 3 ways to get started. Which ways have you tried? ---
**Author:** ![Holger\_Schoenischka](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.nomadsculpt.com/holger_schoenischka/32/3934_2.png) [@Holger\_Schoenischka](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/u/Holger_Schoenischka)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/t/beginner-painting-help/8450/3 "2022-10-12T03:25:03Z")
You should have seen this video to understand how the colors work in Nomad Sculpt: [![](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/uploads/nomadsculpt/original/2X/9/967b355bcff0630de28d5ee0672d0f87685d1e1a.jpeg "Nomad sculpting (vertex painting vs texture painting)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We-2Vcgmmus) ---
**Author:** ![Baeomi\_Draws](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.nomadsculpt.com/baeomi_draws/32/12031_2.png) [@Baeomi\_Draws](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/u/Baeomi_Draws)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 11:31pm UTC](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/t/beginner-painting-help/8450/4 "2022-10-12T23:31:48Z")
Thank you for the detailed breakdown! I tried #3 - just using the paint brush to paint over. It sometimes work on regular clay molds, but it will always change the entire color of a primitive shapes (e.g. the spheres I’ve added as eyes - I try to add color for the details but the entire circle will turn the color I choose). All the other options work, but I am not trying to paint by adding clay but rather on top for shading reasons, etc if that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![mestela](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.nomadsculpt.com/mestela/32/26174_2.png) [@mestela](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/u/mestela)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 4:16am UTC](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/t/beginner-painting-help/8450/5 "2022-10-13T04:16:04Z")
> [@Baeomi\_Draws](#): > > work, but I am not trying to paint by adding clay but rather on top for shading reasons, etc if that makes sense. Ah that might be the reason; you can’t paint on primitives. Validate them to turn them into regular polygon shapes, then you can paint. ---
**Author:** ![Baeomi\_Draws](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.nomadsculpt.com/baeomi_draws/32/12031_2.png) [@Baeomi\_Draws](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/u/Baeomi_Draws)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2022, 12:47am UTC](https://forum.nomadsculpt.com/t/beginner-painting-help/8450/7 "2022-10-15T00:47:14Z")
@mestela THANK YOU!!! You would not believe how many tutorials don’t mention this! Whew, you saved me.