How to change the colour of a segment of a path

[Eleanor5CF8]

Bit of an illustrator newbie here. I'm trying to colour the jumper black, but I therefore want the lines around the jumper section to be white so they contrast. 

Here's the original:

And here's as far as I've gotten, feel like I'm just going in circles now!

TIA

[John Mensinger]

The "wrinkles" are not stroked paths, they are filled paths. You've applied white stroke, but their black fill remains.

You haven't explained how you've gone about filling the jumper with black, but using the same method, you should be able to fill the wrinkles with white.

[Eleanor5CF8]

How would I go about it from the original? 

[Eleanor5CF8]

I just used direct selection and filled with black and changed the stroke colour to white to get the black jumper. But that clearly didn't work :')

[John Mensinger]

How would I go about it from the original? 

I suspect you acquired the graphic by some means, as opposed to constructing it yourself, but in either case, one approach may be favorable over another depending on how it was constructed in the first place. Here's what I'd try first:

Make the jumper a Live Paint Group

• Choose the Direct Select tool (white arrow), and marquee-select around the jumper, making sure to surround it beyond all parts you want to recolor.
• Choose Object > Live Paint > Make (Large, square 'handles' will appear around the selection.)
• Deselect.
• Choose the Live Paint Bucket and set a fill color. Could be better not to use black here, or you'll obscure your view of the elements. Use 50% black.
• Click everywhere in the jumper where you want a black fill.
• Set white as the fill color.
• Click on the "wrinkles" to fill them with white.
• Go back and replace the 50% black with 100% black.

[Eleanor5CF8]

It's a drawing I did that has been scanned in and I've then used image trace on it. 

What do you mean by 50% black?

Also, there's still the problem that when I fill the "wrinkles" white, it fills the lines around the rest of the drawing as well!

[Met1]

Expand, release compound paths and ungroup your initial image trace result, this should separate components - you might find it beneficial to work in outline mode, or color everything except the main shape of the jumper a distinctly different color (e.g. Cyan), color the jumper something else (e.g. Magenta) then work your way through the items to recolor them as appropriate, select all the same color for each and replace with black or white.

[Eleanor5CF8]

I think I'm going to have to find someone that can actually walk me through this. I just can't get it to work, how incredibly frustrating!

[John Mensinger]

Unfortunately, an image trace result as your starting point is one of the hardest things to decipher as an Illustrator beginner. Surely, what you have before you would be much easier to understand if you knew everything else about what Illustrator does before delving into image tracing your hand-drawn art.

I would agree that you need someone who has built a proficiency using Illustrator for that same purpose to walk you through all the variables and methods for getting what you want. Personally, I've used image trace with purpose so few times in my career, that I hesitate to advise you further, lest run the risk of confusing you all the more.

[michelew83603738]

When you use Image Trace, only fills are created, not strokes even though they look like lines in your original drawings. It is very confusing to a newbie. I might be stirring the pot, but you might have more success if once you finish your Image Trace if you then do Live Trace so that you can then color in as wanted.