so im just doodling around with my new bamboo pen, and im having trouble with something. lets say i use the cal brush tool to make an outline of something. then i want to fill it in so i can overlap it with another drawing without them mixing up. do i just need to join any loose ends from sketching together before i can dump a color in? whats the easiest way to keep things together?

I'm not familiar with use of pen/tablets, so don't know what a "cal brush" is.
But I do know how Inkscape works, regarding Fills. You can apply a Fill to a path, and Inkscape will actually try to fill it, even if it's not closed. And the color does not leak out beyond the ends of the path. Of course, it might not fill completely the area you intend..... You'll just have to try it both ways, to learn what is your preference, or what works best in the particular situation in your image.

Unless by "dump a color in" you mean that you want to use the Paint Bucket tool. In this case, yes the path must be closed.

Please see the links in my signature for some excellent instructional material Also the Help menu

I'm not sure what you mean by "keep things together". Can you elaborate?

haha um i meant calligraphy brush... just the tool.
and yeah, dumb a color in regards the bucket tool.
and by keep things together i guess i mean when i start tracing something with the freehand tool, i sometimes didnt get the ends linked together from every time i pick up the pen.
after some messing around i think i have found how to simply select and add them together into one path.
then maybe i can fill easily.
or just carefully fill it in by hand and place it under my outline objects.
ha idk... really learnin alot here! only been working with vector for a couple weeks and with my pen for not even a week, but im pretty impressed with how much it has helped me make some awesome stuff!

Ooohh! Well that could be a problem, because objects made with the Calligraphy tool behaves differently

So let's say you make a circle with the Calligraphy tool. Do you want to change the color of the line drawn with the calligraphy tool, or fill in the circle?

I you want to fill in the circle, you will have to use the Paint Bucket tool. Fill changes the color of the line drawn; and Stroke gives the line a border.

and by keep things together i guess i mean when i start tracing something with the freehand tool, i sometimes didnt get the ends linked together from every time i pick up the pen.

Oh ok. With the freehand or Pencil tool, a single click starts a line and the next single click ends the line. You'll notice that there is a tiny square at each click point. If you hover your mouse over one of them, you might notice that it becomes filled with red. And if you click to start your next line while one of those ends is highlighted, it simply continues that line. If not, it starts a new line.

And the Pen, or Bezier tool works differently. If you want to just click, click, click to draw a line, creating nodes as you go, the Pen tool is what you should use. A single click starts the line, and each successive click creates a node. Then a double-click is necessary to end the line. (Use node handles to create curves.) The Pen tool also has those tiny squares at the beginning and end of each line, which you can use to continue a line. Otherwise the next click will start a new line.

But please, let me urge you to look at the manual or tutorials in the Help menu. If you're just beginning with Inkscape, but have some background in graphics, I would suggest the Quick Guide, in my signature. If you're totally a graphics novice, I would suggest Help menu > Tutorials. They're VERY clear and easy to understand, and you can practice each new lesson as you go.

I'm still not clear what you're doing, so I hope I've given you the info you need. But if not, just reply again, and I'll keep trying (or someone else could jump in too) lol!

yeah ive been thru all the basics and stuff, theres just a lot more to learn about how to go about stuff. ive learned on my own a couple different ways to fill depending on the situation i guess. but heres a good question for ya. say im tracing something and i miss that little square with the freehand tool when i end a line, now i have more than one path. whats the easiest way to turn it into one easy to handle path? ive been playing around and realized you can either group them together, use the path combine option, or even select the end nodes from each and fill the gap by selecting either join selected nodes or join them with a new segment. idk if im going about this the right way haha. thoughts?

Yes, you've got it!
All those things allow the path to be moved as a whole. There are situations where one technique would be preferred over the other. But I'm sure you'll learn those things as you go