Sombre:
Juzza: Hopefully the button confusion will recede. It is lovely, promise!
Incidentally, pretty much the only tool I use for sprites is the pencil. And then I double click on the colour indicator below quite a bit to adjust my colour.
But the bits that are really helpful are the Tools->Colour Tools. Think that area should be a bit darker/higher contrast/green rather than red? Just change it! It's awesome.