Hey there.

The very first thing I noticed with the map was a good one - your colors work very well with each other. Only maybe the shaded grey in the top left corner stands out. You've also got an interesting coastline going on. So you map is very good for any thumbnail type applications - attention grabbing but not glaring in any way. But that's not to say it's not good once you blow it up bigger.

A couple things I think you could improve on;

1) Can you apply a more gradual fade affect to the brown color beneath the mountains. To make those ranges look larger and more connected with the land as a whole, you could extend the brown color maybe 2-3 times as much with a gradual fade.

2) I'm not a huge fan of the city icons... I don't think they match the labels, but I like the labels, so I would change the icons instead Maybe just to dots or simple symbols to give the map a simple feel. You've already got a lot of detail going on, which is great.

Anyway, great work so far.
FM