Forest Edge

I think you have different mood overall and your painting is more cheerful with the colors you chose.
You were saying it looks flat, but it has depth in it. From a viewer point you built this green wall that does not allow eye to travel further. The eye just stops at those trees. You have those trees far away but they got covered with midground trees. So there is short distance between old tree and the edge of the forest. The path shows also quite short distance.
Must tell you that the midground trees are made very well. You preserved shadows there, which is super important. Because it adds volume to those trees.
Another trick to create distance would be to follow one point perspective, because we have little path here. The eye always travel by the lines if there is any line in the painting. This is what is not satisfying in this composition overall. Because path leads to nothing to reward the eyes. This is not your bad at all as this is what video tells us to do. My own painting of this is one of the least favorite. Because I just did not understand what happened with composition when I painted. I learn composition is very important to make a painting look whole and stable. I do not mean to criticize your painting. We just got caught with seeming easiness of it, but were not rewarded with satisfaction because of the compositional problem.

You are correct in your critique. I'm sure I will try this again. I bought a sea sponge and will use this instead of the papertowel and try to leave more open space.

I will be looking forward to see your painting. I decided not to re-try mine. (I don't think I will be able to make it nice). by the way the main tree you have is awesome and almighty!