High school art - Delacroix's "The Lion Hunt"

I was going through my old art and found something I did in high school. I think I was 16 years old and a sophomore. This was an assignment in art class. We were told to copy a work of a great master so I chose one of the hardest ones I could find which was "The Lion Hunt" by Eugene Delacroix in 1861. He was a great French artist. This is what I did.

It measures 18" x 23". I used Crap-pas which is something of a cross between crayons and pastels. I remember I started at the left and worked across the paper towards the right. I don't think I created a preliminary sketch. I went straight ahead. I was very proud of it. Here's a picture of the actual work by Delacroix.

Here's a comparison between the two. I had a limited palette as there weren't that many colors. I recall I had to do a lot of blending to get a color that was something in line with the original.

And what do you think I did with that teenage mind of mine? I used the back of the art to take notes in my driver's ed class! What was I thinking?

 And I folded the work in thirds! Man I just wasn't using my head.

The good news is that in spite of the way I handled the art it held up after all that time!