What am I missing here?

I have a model with a color map png and a normal png. I try to texture paint and I can’t get it to color the color map, just the normal (bump) map.

Gotta be a simple explanation for it but for the life of me I can’t figure out why.

It depends on which image is joined to your UV coords in the UV editor. If you want to paint the color map, go into edit mode with all faces selected, and in the UV editor, call up the color image. then go into object mode, then texture paint mode, in the 3D window.

that did it, thanks Modron.