I just started using Inkscape yesterday (I've only ever used PaintShop Pro, so there's a lot involved in Inkscape that's totally new to me. Please bear with me.). I managed to make some line-art, but I'm having trouble coloring it in. I've checked it over a few times, and I'm pretty sure all the paths are joined correctly, and I'm unsure what could be causing my problem.
I'm not completely sure how to describe what's happening, so here's a screencap: http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l20/R ... kscape.jpg (the blue lines are supposed to be completely filled-in, not harlequin-looking like that). This happens when I try to change the fill of the selected area, and when I try coloring it using the clip+set function.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm sure it's something really simple that I'm just missing.

First off:
The use vector graphics are very different from a bitmap editor, in that in vector graphics you are interested in objects. each object can have its own fill and stroke. In your case each of the lines in the drawing form a different object; so the fill is applied to each separately.

Normally when yo want to colour in a drawing each of these paths needs to be a closed path (see this tutorial, bottom of page 5) so that the fill can be applied to the inside of the object. (using the fill and stoke dialogue ctrl+shift+F)

As you currently don't have well defined, closed objects, you need to create them. There are several ways of doing this. Probably the easiest (although not the best) way of doing this would to use the paint bucket tool ( ) This will attempt to create the required objects. See Tav's manual for more.