Fortunino Matania was an Italian-born artist who created historical illustrations for the English magazines of the World War 1 era. Here's a picture he did of Captain John Smith captured by Indians.
Matania often rendered his pictures on a gray-colored board, which allowed him to develop the darks in pencil and ink wash, and to add the white areas with white gouache. The bright white of the pillow behind the sick girl really glows, and the solid black of the standing woman's dress provides an eye-catching shape behind the seated man.
This one is called "Cagliostro: The Law of Trane" from Britannia & Eve. The tone paper technique is helpful for developing compositional sketches or for creating relatively quick renderings of complex scenes.
These images are all from the collection of Anthony Smith,
who is offering them for sale on his Pinterest page. Thanks, Anthony.
Previously:
Introducing Matania, showing his step-by-stepsMatania's illos of cross-dressing Mary Anne TalbotVideo of Matania at workMatania's models and props
