Hello, everyone! I’m a traditional artist who’s recently hopped on the digital train…but I have no idea how everything works! I understand the brushes, alpha lock, the basics… but I have no idea how to work clipping masks, shading, and lighting- as well as masks. Is there a page somewhere where they give an actual rundown of things(Krita is so unhelpful), or can anyone explain it to me? Thanks!
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Welcome to the community!
When you don’t know, look for the manual 
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I did, krita is being entirely useless and i’m confused over it
Then maybe Krita’s YouTube channel?
https://m.youtube.com/@KritaOrgPainting
When I draw, to make shadows or light, I use another layer on top with a blending mode. What you can do, is draw on a layer, put another on top, draw someting on it, and play with the layer’s filter. You can do so in the layer docker. The filter can be changed by clicking on the “normal” button.
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Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re starting out with a professional-level painting software. Until you invest some serious learning time, everything is going to appear foreign and confusing (and maybe useless?).
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Nice assists, @Katamaheen.
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I learned from all of you 
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I remember when I switched from traditional to digital 20 years ago and thought digital was easy mode. Boy was I wrong. I stayed mostly on traditional for at least five years because there was just so much new to learn and I didn’t even touch the difficult stuff like what are color profiles and why are they important. I can understand that it’s quite frustrating especially when you’re a seasoned traditional artist and it feels like this should be much easier.
Ther are many good Krita beginner tutorials on YouTube, they should help you.
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Hi
Here’s a video of @Deevad that helped me a lot at the beginning:
And another ones that can help too:
Note: videos have been made from Krita 4 I think, UI may have changed a little bit but it’s concept and workflow are still the same with Krita 5.
Grum999
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Also see this topic:
What are some all-in-one tutorials you'd recommend to better learn, how Krita works?
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Welcome Cloudy! I felt the same way when I first started digital. Krita is not simple entry level software. It’s a full blown professional program like Photo-shop, so, like Sooz said, don’t be too hard on yourself. It takes time to learn. I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials on painting in Krita. There are lots of really good ones that helped me a lot. I just dove in and started painting. When I got stuck, I looked up what I could find on YouTube, the on-line Krita manual, and asked for help here on the forum. Also, here in the resources section, there are links to all kinds of tutorials. Everyone here is very helpful and willing to help with any questions you may have. So, jump in like I did, and you’ll start enjoying it in no time. 
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I was in a same boat and was about to give up on krita, but then it clicked.
It seems you are already upto speed with brushes and alpha lock (and assume layers), so this is already enough to paint and create stuff.
My process was (I am still learning) that get one feature at a time and create something out of it. then move to another. for this simple process krita manual was ok or youtube search for specific feature was enough.
Good luck!
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I’m using Krita for 2 to 3 months. At first it was hard to me too. But after some hard practice now it is too much easy to me to use.
{Krita is best software I have ever used. I could use many other top level softwares like CSP, Photoshop, Animate etc. but I like Krita more than those. And will always like it.
…Love from Bangladesh 
}
That’s not true.
I think Krita can be the best software to you if you make hard practice with full potential.
Listen, nothing can be easy without hard practice.
So, best of luck, and keep practicing… 
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I haven’t been using Krita for very long, I came from doing Pixel Art on Aseprite. I did the following and perhaps you can adapt the ideas for your situation:
- Drew Pixel Art in Krita, so that I wasn’t learning a new art stye at the same time as learning a new tool.
- Learnt a small amount of the tool at one time. For instance, right now I am using only one brush, Roughchalk.
Keeping the new things limited allows you to learn a subset of the tool and not be so overwhelmed. Once you get a handle on those, try another new thing and expand out from there.
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Welcome to the forum and to digital painting @Cloudy
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