New wannabe cartographer, first map

[nils.de.reus]

Hello everyone,

A while ago I became interested in making my own maps for game use. I've since tried a few of the tutorials on this site, and finally I am now starting on the real thing. As with most starters, I am hungry for comments and suggestions as I go along.

For the most part, this is a map just to let me develope my style - it is not (yet) part of any game setting.

I seem to have a few style issues:

I like my maps bright and a bit cartoonish. I also like irregular coastlines and island groups. To make even the smallest islands visible, I've applied a high contrast style for the coastlines. On the other hand, my preferred style for mountains uses shading rather than hard outlining, and I've been going back and forth to keep the two styles from seeming mismatched when mixed in one map. Not sure if I've succeeded, but giving higher contrast edges to the mountainous terrain and putting plenty of irregularly shaped forest into the map seems to mitigate the issue.

I am currently working on this map using GIMP only, but I consider adding InkScape to my toolbox.

Cheers,
Nils