Path isn't going all the way around, intersecting at odd places

[marigolden]

(10-16-2019, 05:48 AM)Blighty Wrote:

(10-16-2019, 02:13 AM)marigolden Wrote: I was trying to trace a path around the white part and color it orange What do you mean the selection?

A selection is a "fence" enclosing some pixels. The selection is indicated by a moving dotted line (marching ants). Only pixels within the selection (and on the active layer) will be altered (eg coloured orange). A selection is not tied to a layer. You can use one layer to make a selection, then use the selection on another layer.

The first 7 tools in the toolbox are selection tools. They are Rectangle Select; Ellipse Select; Free Select; Fuzzy Select; Select by Color; Scissor Select; Foreground Select.
For now, I would recommend using these tools to make selections. Don't use paths for now.

Referring to the image in your first post:
You say you traced the area with the Path Tool. You have too many nodes, a hundred or more. You probably only need 8 nodes to trace that shape with a path. In other words, you are not using paths correctly. That is why I suggest not using paths for now. First get a better understanding of paths. A path is also independant of layers.
Rather stay with the 7 selection tools for now. Try the Fuzzy Select tool to select the area you want to colour orange.

Thanks for suggesting that, I since have learned how to use the fuzzy tool and it helps with a lot of situatons particularly for the cartoons. However with other pictures it's not feasible to use. The reason I use so many nodes is because when I try to use the path adjusting feature it doesn't create a smooth shape between the nodes, it becomes scalloped looking and creates these white line indents between the nodes..for reference I drew these 2 circles and you can see the difference
https://imgur.com/a/ni0Tnxq