I am very much a  beginner in Illustrator and this Helen's class helped me overcome all my confusions.
I admit, I watched the class many many times, stopping and repeating, forgetting to drink water or eat- it was a fight...

I can't recommend more this class to people of all levels. Having an instructor who covers all questions even before they come to existence is a real luck and pleasure to study.

I worked in CMYK and my jpg images are medium size to make them not heavy so the colors are very different,  I played with recoloring the umbrellas but here I show only couple versions made with black or light outline on different background color.

Helen's technique of changing the background color is excellent ! I can't be more happy learning from her!