Graphic Design Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for Graphic Design professionals, students, and enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I was editing an image on illustrator (i have photoshop as well), but the after removing the background, the inside colours were taken off as well. I put the background of the page as blue so you can see the contrast. I wanted the hair, flag, face, torso, arm, hand and one of the feathers on the right wing to still be white. essentially i wanted everything outside the outline to go. the other image with the white background is what was sent to me any help will be great. thanks
. 
The black shape seems to be a traced bitmap image - it's too complex to be a native vector drawing. So, the black curves aren't strokes, they are areas filled with black. If these guesses are right do the following
The original shape
Gaps are filled; this is a red square (=outlined stroke) for easy removal if the gap is wanted to stay. It cannot be a stroke, it must be a filled area!
Select all, click the Shape Builder tool, select "no stroke" and the wanted fill color. Fill the areas.
The patch on the gap is removed.
The fill is a new separate new, it can have any color.
This is a test result with this method:
Your 2nd image is traced as black and white (fill only, no stroke, ignore white). Few patches were inserted to the bottom edge of a wing and top left corner of the flag. Shape Builder fill color was white. The patches are removed and a blue BG was inserted.
BTW double clicking the Shape Builder tool icon opens a dialog where one can set option"Gap detection" =ON. That can solve the problem with no gap patches. But you must click with the Shape builder tool many more times.
