Transcribing - Van Gogh’s Cornfield and Cypress Trees

I am working my way through Jackie Simmond’s ‘Pastel Workbook’ and one of the exercises is to copy Van Gogh’s Cornfield and Cypress Trees. It looked like it was easy enough, but I had a few challenges. One was trying to keep the strokes from touching too much. Another was that I used a paper with a strong ochre tint to it whereas I should have really used a blue/grey paper. Overall, once I got into the aspect of paisley strokes it is quite a fun style to paint with. Please leave your comments on areas of improvement! On a side note, I painted this outside (to enjoy the beautiful day) on my Plein Air Easel to test it out. I put the easel on my SLIK Able 300DX tripod and was impressed at the stability. I had the painting on a 12×12" hardboard and never had a problem with anything moving when applying the pastel. Below is Van Gogh’s painting to compare mine with.