Venus Practice Map [WIP]

[Humabout]

After really spending some time looking at everyone's work on here, especially Max's and SK's (I just love your maps), I've decided I really need to get more comfortable with GIMP and Inkscape. I've been posting bits and pieces I've done with Inkscape, as I've tinkered with it. GIMP has been another beast, though. So to that end, I started working through RobA's Creating an Artistic Map tutorial and thought I'd post my progress. For a base, I started with a map of the continents of Venus (because I'm a total geek, I like the shapes of the continents, and because I really beat myself up over landform shapes). I took that map and have since brought it to the point where I will begin putting in mountains. This is where I will likely depart from the height maps of Venus that I've found. I've also cleaned up a lot of the "islands" that litter its "oceans."

Original Map pulled from Google:
Venus.jpg

Current WIP:
Venus Map.jpg

Eventually, I'll probably turn this into a fantasy map so I can squeeze as much practice as I can from this tutorial. I may also end up making an actual map of Venus as if it had water, just for fun. I'd love any feedback anyone has.

[EDIT]
Here's another update with mountains and glaciation in the north. I'm not sure the icecap really fits the style of the rest.
Current WIP:
Venus 2.jpg