Gettin' tonal

Just finished 3 new paintings for a gallery in vero. Gotta keep up with the galleries with new stuff whether they are selling or not. Old paintings just go stale and you have to move them around. All three paintings are boats on the water, the gallery owner likes them and has sold a few. This time I approached it a little differently, normally I start with a lightly toned canvas but I had one canvas to fit the frame size, a 24x30 and I didn't feel like going out and buying a new one. The existing canvas had a very dark tone to it because I had over painted an older painting with what I had on hand, black with some red. I figured, well, what the heck, I'll try something different.I threw down my darks which all but dissappeared in the tone and then went for the lights to establish the upper end of my value scale. Somehow the whole thing just stayed dark but there's enough light in it to pull it off. The original is very subtle, except for the sun. My reference did not have sails going up and though I'm not one for artifice in these kinds of settings, it needed the break in the horizon. So I added some, but to make it more honest, I put in some guys handling the sails. Had to do a little research on this to make sure it was only a two sail boat. It was. I love the great google.