Hello everyone,

Inkscape is proving to be far more frustrating than rewarding. I downloaded GIMP and with nothing but previous beginners experience puttering around in Photoshop I was able to run it easily and accomplish everything I have set out to do. Inkscape by comparison is not intuitive whatsoever. All I wanted to do was open a .png with an all black image on a transparent background, select the image, and put a gradient over it. In two weeks of working on the internet I have yet to even accomplish the first step.I have opened my .png in inkscape and now there seems no way whatsover to select the black object and my background is white not transparent.

Why did it destroy or refuse to recognize it was importing a partially transparent .png image? How do I select my black item? All I would need to do in GIMP is open the file and select Alpha to Selection button and the item would be lassoed despite any complexities in shape and the selected item could be manipulated in any way desired. But the only good copper gradients I have found are for inkscape and I never would have believed it is this difficult to use them. 

What do I do?

I suggest using the Tutorials in Inkscape's Help menu. They are fast and easy, and can introduce you to vector illustration, which is very different from raster/bitmap editors like Gimp and Photoshop.

Right know I´m not sure you fully understand the difference between raster- and vector-graphics. Nonetheless Inkscape get you covered by using filters on bitmaps to colorize:

Your assumption is correct, I am just a dabbler although I have achieved some beautiful if simple things in Photoshop/GIMP. I've no artistic schooling and will have to investigate raster vs vector graphics online.

Unfortunately most of the tutorial I am finding for what I wish to do are 4 or more years old and the gui and some features of my Inkscape dont match what I see on the tutorials.

I will look into the built in help section as Tyler advised and see if that can move me forward with this program. I would like to learn it to have another tool in my box.