Trying my hand at world maps and GIMP

[- Max -]

A few comments:
- Mountains are way too repetitive in my opinion and doesn't really feet the forests (simple but nicely suggested )
- Using drop shadow on coastlines and forests make them looks like floating.
- Some rivers issues : Rivers flow down on the shortest way to the sea so I think the one on north western mountains should go west rather than south and the one in the north should go south rather than east. Also River sources are a bit obvious and harsh.

I like the landshape and the coastlines

[Eld]

Rivers flow down on the shortest way to the sea (...)

Tell this to the Nile or the Danube.
If I remember my geography lessons right, rivers run the way with the steepest gradient they could find, as the gravitational force pulls the water.
So if there are smaller hills and uneven plains, it's quite possible for rivers to have any shape the mapper wants them to have.^^

Of course one could suggest to show things on the map that make rivers change their way, but on a map of this scale it would be impossible to show some small hills of let's say 20 to 50m.

Therefore I'd argue that it's not that important which way the rivers follow, but it's very important that the mapper had some thoughts in mind while creating them.

Back to the map: My personal taste is that I don't like the way the mountains look like now. I think the coloured forests are quite nice but the area containing the mountains should not be coloured grey as a whole. To the style of the map that I could see, some mountains of a more individual and bigger size would fit in better.