Recoloring Complex Artwork in Illustrator

Say you find an awesomely-realistic vector file from a stock site (like the rose illustration below), but it’s not the color you’re looking for and you’d like to recolor it. Depending on how the file was created, this can be an extremely daunting task, especially if the illustration uses 30 or 40+ colors and/or has a gradient mesh to blend colors. Ugh!

I’m going to show you how to use the Recolor Artwork tool in Adobe Illustrator to efficiently recolor your vector art so you don’t spend hours and hours…