4Square/Kaleidoscope Composition

So this is my 4Square/Kaleidoscope Composition. I started with a photograph of a leaf on the sidewalk. I really liked this leaf because of the great yellow color and the star-resembling shape. I outlined the leaf and it's veins using the pen tool and then used fills. For the dots, which are representations of the gravel and stones on the sidewalk I used the blob-brush. Since it's finally getting cooler outside and fall has arrived I picked my color scheme based on fall colors. The top right image is version A and it goes around clockwise from there. 

And this was my ugly first attempt: 

When I created this I really didn't know what I was doing, I used the paintbrush for all of it and it was all messy lines. I couldn't rotate the pieces without them getting messed up and the colors were pretty ugly. I just hated it so that's why I started over with a way more simplified and graphically appealing composition!