Let me start by saying, my absolute favorite is when an artist is  able to create an overwhelming amount of chaos that just as soon offers a bright sense of calm within their fashion illustration.  Meet Vadi Tkachev, Russian illustrator/artist mixes techniques creating colorful, vivid compositions.  He fancies acrylic, ink, spray paint and markers with many of his paintings being completed using digital post processing.

In researching Tkachev I came across a lot of tags/keywords that used “fashion illustration” and it made me think about what exactly defines an illustration as being “fashion illustration”.

After reading and discussing with others, I am sold on this idea: overall fashion illustration speaks to a time period and the things that were/are happening using an artists interpretation of fashion as a means of communication.  Tkachev does not use models or sketches as we would customarily think of as fashion illustration, but I think he showcases the idea behind many of the trends we see today pertaining to fashion.

What are your thoughts?  Obviously we have talent here, but is it fashion illustration of just illustration?