Hello everyone.

Before I take a look at the tutorials for the third time, and struggle to follow their instructions, I'd like to post an example of my current skills with Gimp. Perhaps I will recollect on this and laugh at myself, or perhaps I will never find out how to use this program. I normally can figure out the base functions of things, but not with Gimp. If I discovered how to work this, I might enjoy it.

Click image for larger version. 

Name:	My Failure.PNG 
Views:	180 
Size:	1.02 MB 
ID:	57015

The weird looking things are trees, by the way. A dot is a village and a * is a city.

As you can see, I have learned how to:

1) Open the Program
2) Use the pencil tool
3) Insert a Background (the paper texture)

However, I know this program should allow me to do much more. What am I missing? I'd like to know how to change the size of the pencil tool*, change the color, and basically the simple stuff that should be obvious.

*I've found out how to change the size