Single Continent Map

[Samp]

I do not post here a lot, but have been reading quite a bit, so I've decided to move from pencil and paper to digital format for once, and here's what I came up with so far with Paint.net. (I'm only working on that one continent, so I haven't refined and outlined the others. They are just random lumps of colours at the moment) I don't really know how I can go on working on this, so you can say I'm stuck here The water doesn't look much satisfactory to me, and I'm having some problems with placing the text in better locations. Help, anyone?

*EDIT*
Yes, I know the rivers are off D= I'll draw the lines in once I can get the mountains looking more realistic.

Here's a prtscreen of it.
Ps. Pardon me if this is in the wrong section.

[Sergei Zybin]

Samp, your map have GREAT potential! Colors are nice, mountains cool and coastline in just perfect in case of real geography. So all you problems can be solved I think. Its better to wait advice from some real masters, who dwell here... But here my humble suggestions in graphic form. About sea and place names.

[jtougas]

The landmasses look great. I would stroke the other islands as well for a more unified look. I also agree with Sergei on the placement of labels. A change in ocean texture would really finish this off nicely. All in all great work

[Ascension]

My suggestion, for now, would be to make the ocean lighter but take the current color and use that as the stroke instead of the black - gives it more of an atlas look. If you were going for satellite-style then I'd just darken everything and remove the stroke. As Sergei said, lots of potential...you already have a good grasp on what you want and a real good idea of how to do it. Everything from this point on is just style issues since this seems perfectly fine to me. Nice job, man.

[Samp]

Hmm, thanks for the replies. I shall get down to work once I find the time!