You're most likely to encounter SketchUp's color picker when you apply materials to a model. (However, you do find the color picker elsewhere, such as when selecting a color for text.) This article explains how to use the color picker for your current operating system. To select a color, you can choose from the following different methods:

When all you want is a material (such as brick, tile, or grass), importing a whole component from 3D Warehouse into your model can bloat the file with content you neither want nor need. Fortunately, you can download only the material. To find and download a component’s material directly in 3D Warehouse, follow these steps: