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Change Colors Or Recolor Your Artwork In Illustrator

The tutorials on this page are part of my free Ultimate Guide to Adobe Illustrator for Fashion. Click here to start from the beginning.

As fashion designers, we work with colors. A LOT of colors.

Sometimes, you need to mockup LOADS of colorway options for garments or textile patterns.

Sometimes you need to replace Pantone Coral with Pantone Lobster throughout an ENTIRE LINE SHEET. Even though the shade is BARELY different. (Gotta love those “detail-oriented” clients #thescopecreepisreal)

The “recolor artwork” section of this guide is SHORT. But two of the three video tutorials are REQUIRED for all fashion or textile (surface pattern) designers.

If you work with color at all, these videos are MANDATORY.

How to Change, Replace, Merge, or Recolor ANY Type of Artwork in Illustrator (including pattern swatches and brushes)

Of all the tutorials I’ve ever shared, this IS one of the best kept secrets in Illustrator.

I’ve seen designers who’ve come from other design software packages (like NedGraphics or Kaledo) complain that Illustrator doesn’t have a quick way to recolor your artwork. (#spoileralert it does!)

I’ve seen advanced designers (who’ve been using the software for 10 years) #jawdrop when they watched this video. (Don’t worry, it’s easy enough that anyone can do it.)

Here we go – in less than 10 minutes, you’ll learn how to easily:

  • Swap color positions
  • Replace one color with another
  • Merge colors
  • Cycle through endless colorway options

IN A FEW CLICKS.

Your recoloring situation will go from HOURS to MINUTES.

And yes, it works for solid blocks of color, repeating pattern swatches, brushes, and pretty much every other kind of artwork you can create in Illustrator.

If you work with color, HIT PLAY ON THIS VIDEO TUTORIAL NOW! →

How to Use Pantone Swatches in Illustrator to Color Your Designs

If you work in fashion, you’ll be using Pantone colors to design.

And chances are, you’ll want to use those EXACT Pantone color values in Illustrator.

Which is why I made a video tutorial to show you exactly how to do that.

Before you scroll down so fast, make sure you’re using the right Pantone book.

You’ll likely be working with the TPX / TCX books…but not always.

This video will help you figure that out:

Next, make sure you have the correct Pantone libraries loaded in Illustrator.

Got your workspace setup now?

Here’s a tutorial on how to color your fashion designs using ACTUAL Pantone colors in Illustrator:

The tutorials on this page are part of my free Ultimate Guide to Adobe Illustrator for Fashion. Click here to start from the beginning.

Jump to more tutorials

The Illustrator Beginner’s Series

Fashion Sketches (AKA fashion flats)

How to Draw Curved Lines

Seamless Repeating Patterns & Textile Design

Tech Sketches & Technical Design

Fashion Brushes (zippers, stitching, gathers, etc)

About the Author

Heidi {Sew Heidi}

With no fashion degree or connections, Heidi’s start in the industry was with her own brand. By her mid-20s, she had grown it to $40,000+ in revenue. Despite that ‘success,’ she was left broke and burnt. Next, she landed her dream fashion design job at a lifestyle brand in Denver, CO. But the toxic offices gave her too much anxiety. So, in 2009, she started her business as a freelance fashion designer. After a lot of trial and error (she literally made $0 in her first year!), she figured out how to find well-paying clients, have freedom in her day, and make money doing the work she loved in fashion. She grew her freelance business to $100,000+ a year working a comfortable 35 hours a week. In 2013, Heidi started Successful Fashion Designer. She has reached hundreds of thousands of fashion designers, TDs, PDs, pattern makers, and more around the world through her educational videos, podcast episodes, books, live trainings, and more. Heidi’s signature program, Freelance Accelerator: from Surviving to Thriving (FAST) has generated over $1 Million in revenue and helped almost 1,000 fashion designers escape toxic jobs and do work they love in fashion.

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