Change color/hue (blend mode) of complex graphic in Illustrator

Question

Is there a relatively quick way of changing the colour of something in Illustrator. I'm working on a paint splat, so there is lots of subtle colour changes and opacity set. So selecting the group and changing the colour will make it one solid colour, which I don't want.

I know you can do this is Photoshop by overlaying a shape (rectangle) with the colour you want. Then on the layer options change the blend mode to hue/color and it works.

However if I do this in illustrator it does change the colour of the paint splat but it also maintains the rectangle shape so there is a solid block of colour around it. In Photoshop that area would go opaque. Any ideas?

The reason I'm trying to do this is I want to see an array of colours before deciding on what we use. Changing all the colours manually for 12 colours would take too long!

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

• Select all objects that you want changed;
• Open your Swatches palette and click the New Colour Group button, a folder icon, on the bottom;

• Click on the folder icon in front of the swatches folder that was just created;
• The icon to the left of the New Colour Group icon shoudl change into Edit or Apply Color Group, a colour wheel icon. Click that;

• In the dialogue that pops up, click Edit on the top left;
• You can drag one colour around the colour wheel and it will update your art's hue, and drag the others along. You can edit saturation and brightness for all colours separately.

Answer 2

Select all objects which should be changed and open Edit > Color > Change Color (or something similar, currently I'm working on a german workspace)

Does that the trick for you?