Voolf's miscellaneous art

[Voolf]

So, for example, I could draw the thumbnails at a good size, before ending up having to draw inside them with 1 pixel brushes.

I would refrain from using 1px brush. Instead use the pressure sensitivity and draw subtle lines using 3px brush or at least 2px.

I've also understood your explanation for drawing a map with the same resolution as the screen and reducing the size by a factor of three once the drawing's finished. I think I'll try that, at least for one map, to see what it does. In any case, thank you very much for these clarifications, they'll help me get off to a good start!

A good idea is to zoom out canvas while drawing and constantly checking the "end result". That way you can see and experiment, either increase or decrease details.
Or, if you have two monitors, draw in 100% zoom using your main monitor, and put a copy of the image on the second monitor smaller to have a live update of what the image will look like.

I was looking for a good example to show you but i could not find the one i saw few month ago, so have a look at that one by Sheather888 on DeviantArt.
If you click 2x to have the original size you can see the tree trunks have very very crude strokes (the colour, shade and highlight) as well as foliage is just a grungy brush stamped here and there. It does not look good. However, when you zoom it out, everything coalesce nicely into one big forest.