In Krita, drawing tools can be used in both paint layers (raster layers) and vector layers, except for the various brush tools, which only work on raster layers.
Note: this tutorial won't cover the tools in the order above. We'll cover the brush tools first, then the rest.
Common Properties
All drawing tools rely on several settings found in the toolbar when they're used with paint layers, such as the currently selected brush and foreground color. This means you can select a textured brush and use it with any of the drawing tools, including rectangle, and it will work, with some limitations.
It's worth noting that in some applications you have tools for applying operations like "blur," "dodge," "smear," "clone stamp," and "eraser." In Krita, these tools are all brushes. You can find the first ones in the Digital brush preset that comes with Krita. For example, if you select the "blur" brush with the rectangle tool, it will create a blurry rectangle outline on the image.
Common Issue: in Krita, there are 5 settings found in the toolbar that can make a brush not draw the way you expect: opacity and flow will make the brush completely transparent when set to 0%; eraser will make it erase parts of the canvas instead of drawing; preserve alpha will prevent it from creating opaque pixels on transparent areas; and the most unusual one is blend mode. In most applications, only layers have blend modes. In Krita, you can set the blend mode for the brush. For example, if blend mode is set to "darken" the brush won't draw anything if the pixels on the layer are already darker than the color of the brush. If, unexpectedly, you can't draw anything, make sure these settings are properly configured. The default blend mode is "Mix -> Normal." Brushes are also affected by whether the layer is locked or has its preserve alpha setting enable, so check those as well.
Easy Improvement: it's possible to configure a keyboard shortcut in Krita to switch to the previously selected brush. I believe this is a better idea than using the eraser mode on the brush, since you can select an eraser, then select a brush, and just press a key to switch from one to the other.
Brush Tools
Krita's brush tools are tools used for drawing with a drawing tablet. They all support pen pressure and stroke stabilization.
Freehand Brush Tool
This is the tool most artists use to draw with a drawing tablet.
In its tool options you'll find the ability to enable a stabilizer, which will help make your brush strokes smoother, specially when inking line art. Krita comes with three stabilizer modes: Basic, Weighted (old one), and Stabilizer (new one), the latter two have settings to change how strong the stabilization effect is.
Note: every application that has a stroke stabilizer feature appears to implement a different stabilization algorithm, so no matter what you do, it won't feel exactly the same as the stabilizer you would have in SAI, CSP, or FireAlpaca. They're all different.
Dynamic Brush Tool
This is essentially a different stabilizer algorithm that lets you set the mass and drag of the brush and then it does some simple physics simulations to move the brush around the canvas.
In some settings, this can make the brush move very slowly, or faster than the mouse cursor, so it spins around the cursor like a crazy satellite! It's very funny.
Note: I don't know why this is a sperate tool when it could just be another stabilizer option for the brush tool. In particular, because it's a separate tool, it has a different keyboard shortcut than the normal brush tool.
Multibrush Tool
This strange tool lets you place multiple brushes on the canvas, and then draw a single stroke to move all of tem at once.
Note: I don't know why this is a separate tool, either. I think everyone would be happier if all the brush tools were unified in a single tool, and all the shape tools as well. It would save space in the toolbox.
Shape Tools
When shape tools are used with vectors, they create vector shapes. When they are used to with paint layers, they can be configured to use the foreground or background color as fill, or a pattern; and the outline (stroke) is the currently selected brush.
Line Tool
This tool lets you draw a straight line between two points by clicking and dragging. Useful if you're drawing structures.
If you hold the Shift key, the angle is constrained, e.g. if you want to draw 0°, 45°, or 90° exactly.
Note: the current brush is applied, so you could use the line tool with a textured brush with it, for example. All other shape tools work the same way as this tool.
Rectangle Tool
Draws a rectangle by clicking and dragging.
Hold Shift to draw a square.
Hold Ctrl to resize the rectangle you're currently dragging around its center instead of from its starting point.
Hold Alt to move the rectangle you're currently dragging instead of resizing.
Ellipse Tool
Same as above, but an ellipse (circle).
Polygon Tool
Draw complex shapes edge by edge. It works like the Line Tool, but with connected lines.
The polygon completes when you click the start of the polygon again.
Bézier Curve Tool
Used to draw curves by clicking and dragging.
Draws straight lines if you don't drag.
Works similar to the Polygon Tool, completing the shape when you click at its starting point.
Freehand Path Tool
This is similar to the Freehand Brush Tool, except there is no stabilizer or pen pressure, and it can optionally fill an area with the foreground color.
Selection Variants
Krita has many selection tools for shapes, and they work essentially the same way as these shapes tools. For example, holding Shift will constraint the rectangular selection tool into a square.
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