Remove an image from top of another image

[Silviu-Marian5E25]

Hello! I have just started using Ai so I am sorry if this questions is trivial, but I couldn't find exactly what I needed so far. I have an image (it is like a circle with some gradient/shadowing color effect) and some other image on top. I want to remove the image on top of the circle in a way that the empty spot left by removing it looks natural i.e. the gradient of the circle appears naturaly. If the circle had only one color, I could have just filled the space by hand but in this case I can't really do it. How can I achieve this? Thank you!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I don’t understand your description, could you please post screenshots with the pertinent Panels (Toolbar, Layers [with the active Layer expanded], …) visible? 

[Silviu-Marian5E25]

Thank you for your reply. Please find the figure attached below. What I need is to remove all the text from the figure, in such a way that the purple sphere looks natural after that.

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Silviu Marian,

Your Layers palette says that it is an embedded raster image.

You need to have the original vector artwork in order to change things the way you wish.

Or start over and create it anew.

[Silviu-Marian5E25]

I am not sure what "an embedded raster image". I just have this one figure. I am mainly wondering if there is an option to crop parts of an image (in this case the letters) and fill in the empty space by interpolating the colors around. In principle this can be done by hand pixel by pixel doing a simple linear interpolation of the colors. For example if I crop a pixel and the one on the left is (250,0,0) and the one on the right is (252,0,0), then the one in the middle (the cropped one) should most probably be (251,0,0). Of course doing it by hand for all the pixels would take forever, so I was wondering if this can be done automatically. Thank you!

[Jacob Bugge]

Silviu Marian,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raster_graphics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics

[Silviu-Marian5E25]

Uh... so can I do that or not?

[edgrimley]

You could just draw a new circle above the image circle and fill it with a gradient to match.

[Silviu-Marian5E25]

But how would I still keep that cylinder-like shape coming from the left? If I cover it all with a circle that will be gone too, no? Am I missunderstanding your suggestions?

[edgrimley · Accepted solution]

Mask out the cylinder area on the new gradient circle.