One month today actually, finished my first one on 9th of June. :>
I have been working with computer graphics as I've said before, and one of the traits you pick up there very quickly is speed. Everything is always in a rush.
I can give you some potentially intimidating numbers if you like. Getting the map to this stage took about 9 hours and I spent probably 40 min trying to find a good shape using clouds and threshold. I then redrew the outline 2 times before I found a level of jaggedness that I thought looked decent, and probably 1-2 hours at the end spent on trying to figure out a background for it, before arriving at it's current faded look. I also spent some time looking at tutorials for drawing the mountains!
I have been trying to build up speed for years though, so don't feel you should be faster than you are if that makes you stress out. I know I got very stressed when I was younger and saw how fast people were with stuff. It comes naturally with time.
I'm not sure what to do with the colors yet, I quite like this subtle faded tone so far, I will probably change my mind a few times before it's done though.
Thank you though, happy to hear that you like it.