Changing Stock clip art color?

Question

I am a photographer that dabbles in graphic design, and a client has asked me to do wedding invitations, well that's great, but I found a really nice flourish in my stock clip art and it is black, and I want it to be brown. Is there anyway to make it brown. I use photoshop currently with my photography, and didn't know if I could change the color of the clip art in that program... Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

couple of different ways in photoshop

>>image>>adjustments>>Hue & Saturation  : This will allow you to change change the color linearly while tweaking the lightness/darkness and overall saturation.  (from black to brown, lighten it to a middle grey, then put it to full saturation...THEN go the the color balance feature (explained below) and add yellow and red. go back go Hue&sat and adjust as necessary untill there's a brown you like.)

or

>>image>>adjustments>>color balance  :  this allows you to change colors by adding or subtracting one in particular.

reccommended:

Make sure the black shape is on a transparent background, and not on a white background.

make sure you can see your layers and click on the layer with the black shape.

In the same layer window on the bottom there are a bunch of icons. pick the "blending options icon". (it looks like an f with a little circle around it)

select "color overlay"

change the chosen color to whatever brown you like. You'll have to change the color overlay layer each time you want to tweak this color. as the color overlay over-rides any color in the actual graphic. (while preserving it.)

Answer 2

There are two ways. You can go to Illustrator and change the color by selecting different colors by clicking with Direct Selection Tool and fill in. Or you can bring the clip art to Photoshop. Go to Image - Adjustments - Color Balance.