The form-Link Thumbnail
in this approach, the results are presented in their entirety, but they are linked to each other using props or background elements, which makes a larger shape.
Saul Tepper establishes the domestic setting and unites the family members with the chair, door, and drop shadow. The man's head is cleverly silhouetted against the refrigerator, the point of the announcement of the sale. 
Howard Pyle uses fine forms of the smoke and the horizon as a linear scaffolding for hanging the separate parts together. The Real White Vignette
If you stage a scene so that part of it is made of a white material, thumbnail looks natural and not forced. The white element could be a snowy field, a sandy beach or in the case of this John Gannam, a white sheet. The two dark shapes on top of the composition are crucial in defining the shape of the bed 
The white of the tablecloth is white paper.
Spillover the Vignette
For this one, consider white background not as white paper, but as a field of illumination, flooding the subject and pour over the edges of the form. This ripple effect has been launched by the pocket cover artist James Bama. The edge of the form can be quite lost as in this case .... 
.... or the edge of the form can be held. Anyway, the figure should be on both sides, with the shadow of core at the front of the form. 
I did paint a minor asteroid inspired by innovation Bama. The image appeared on a paperback called Out of the Sun Ben Bova. I put the model against backlight in a door, with all the light from outside to overflow into the side planes of his face and shoulders. Then, in the painting, I really lost all edges of the forms and let them blend into the background Read the entire series :.
vignetting, Part 1
vignetting, Part 2
vignetting, Part 3
More about vignetting in my book Realism Imaginative: How to Paint What Does not Exist
Thanks to that this week: ..
John Flesk link
Roger Reed Illustration House, link
Flickr sets Leif Peng link.
illustrated books of Jim Vadeboncoeur link.
100 Years of Illustration link.
Armando Cabrera, link.
Illustration Art, link.
