Recolor artwork not working - maybe a clipping mask in there?

[jillo10791090]

I downloaded a Woodgrain vector based artwork eps from a stock site and when I tried to recolor artwork (1 color and assigned my chosen grey color) it didn't work for some of the art, specifically the wood knots. After investigating a bit further, it appears that there are clipping masks on these knots and I'm not sure if I can recolor them. I've tried ungrouping and releasing the clipping masks and selecting them in layers. I appreciate any ideas! Thank you,

[Ton Frederiks]

I see a lot of rectangles, can you have a look in the Layers panel and in the Links panel to see if they are images?

[jillo10791090]

Yes, exactly. There are a series of Path then Image for the wood knots.

[Ton Frederiks]

And unfortunately you cannot recolor images with Recolor Artwork in Illustrator.

You can try Adjust Color balance, but Photoshop is the better image editor.

[jillo10791090]

Bummer.  They don't even look like images (to me). Do you think I could image trace and then expand them?

[Ton Frederiks]

It's worth trying.