RPG Fan and aspiring artist

[swotavator]

Hey all, I have been trolling for about 6 months. Great site. I am artsy-fartsy, as people go, yet haven't done much digital. I am familiar with PSP and PS, but intend on using mapping to help learn these tools better.

Interests:
CRPG - mostly old Ultimas - such detailed worlds
WOT - Same - so much detail
Historic cartography - I intend to also create hand-made maps, eventually paint and calligraphy on parchment, to recreate some of the above worlds in true-historic fashion. This is something that I don't think I have really seen on the site yet. Here is an example of what I mean: http://www.mapsorama.com/maps/world/...einel_1504.jpg

Current Projects:
Hand made map on fake parchment made out of heavy watercolor stock, watercolor and calligraphy.
Ultima- Britannia heightmap, pieced together from DEM files. I intend on eventually using this in Terragen. It is totally not done yet, and not detailed enough, but I wonder why this community doens't crank out more heightmaps.
Here is a scaled down sample of rev.1 (actual is 8192x8192): See attached

I am more familiar with PSP, but want to work more on PS. I don't know much aout it, nad am not good at working with layers. In fact i don't know most of the basic features. Can anyone point to a thorough resource to help learn? Thanks for your help guys!