hmmm... well...

They look too *thick* and that's going to add to that "paint-y" feel. All the different colors adds to that. I've never seen orange yellow or maroon roads.

I would create a path along your roads. Then either "stroke path" (keep it at a 1px width... your roads shouldn't be wider than your towns) with a dark, rich brown, OR you could go "path to selection" and fill the selection with a texture. I don't have any textures but the one that came with GIMP, so the one that *I* would use is going to be a limited selection.

Crinkled paper, pink marble, walnut, cork board, cobblestones... anything brown/beige/pinkish might work. OR if your nation is a modern one, you could do black, like a regular street, or white like you might find on google maps.

Either way, you'll do better stroking or filling the path than using whatever tool that is. It doesn't look like paint, so much as marker :s


Keep in mind I'm a total mapping-newbie, so there's probably a better way than mine, and I'm sure someone will post it.

In the meantime, I'd make a copy of your whole map and experiment and see what feels right to you