How to color only parts of a design?

[bettyhills]

I have a black on white silhouette design of a horse and plow with clear negative spaces for the areas between legs, etc. The entire design outline is a path with anchor points. Each of the negative spaces is surrounded by a path. None of the paths intersect each other.

When I paint the black, the entire design gets painted. I have tried painting the negative spaces with "none" but there is no effect, they stay black. I can paint them white.

Question 1: Is it possible to have negative "holes" (no paint) within a vector design? If so, how do I create them? (I tried Pathfinder but could not get it to work.)

Question 2: Is using white in this way a viable option? I hope to save the design in solid "rich" black and white for use in logos and signage in many sizes from 2" to 5 feet. Will having white fill in the negative spaces cause problems later on when the design is scaled up and down?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[The Repro Kid]

Sounds like the individual shapes are not really closed paths, and are somehow connected to each other? Or maybe your negative shapes a closed paths but they are behind the main shapes rather than in front? or maybe you need to make compound paths? hard to say

I think the answer to question Number 1. is to make a compound path. Menu-Object-Paths-Make Compound.

Question 2 would be solved by making a compound, then the negative is like a donut hole and does not require any special white coloring.

Maybe read about compound paths in the help menu to get some insight?