Stain Repellant

This is a pretty basic concept, but if you try to use the Symbol Stainer tool (nested under the Symbol Sprayer in the Toolbox) and nothing happens, it's because the Symbol Stainer tool cannot affect an object that is black. With this in mind, you might want to create a version of your symbol in shades of gray and drag-and-drop it into the Symbols palette. Then if you decide to stain the symbol, you'll have a version on which the Symbol Stainer tool will work.