Tutorial for Adobe Illustrator?

I am back from a long hiatus and would like to play around with making myself a character. I used to use free lineart and gimp, but have since purchased Adobe Illustrator. I was thinking I could use that instead of gimp, but for the life of me I can't figured it out. I downloaded some free lines and tried using live paint, but it was a disaster. 

Can anyone point me in the direction of a youtube video that would have what I need to get started? It would be very appreciated! Thanks!