Chashio's ideas really helped me focus on some of the details. Here is a new version in which I have cleaned up as many of the problems as I can figure out how to.
In particular, the mountains were a nightmare. I originally did them with photoshop brushes. I made several shapes (inspired by some I found on the internet, but new) and set them as brushes. But all the research I have done today suggests that there is no way to make a photoshop brush totally opaque, so I can't make closer mountains completely cover farther ones. I finally gave up and did the mountains a completely different way. In doing so, I was also able to get rid of the brown rim problem which seems to have been due to resolution issues.
The original border bevel was quite by accident, but I liked it so I left it. In this revision, I couldn't get quite the same effect, so I did a deliberate one instead. Not sure I like it quite as well, but at least it looks more like beaches than cliffs.
Lines from the compass were added for effect, since I see them in so many other maps on here, but I don't have any idea why people have them running in all directions. I figured it was decoration, since true rhumb lines look quite different. I have removed them, until perhaps I learn more about them.
I also made new town buttons, this time using a fractal program to get a much smoother (and higher resolution) round shape.
I still haven't figured out how to make the forests hug/overlap the mountain bases. I played around with erasers and with stamp tool, but nothing really looked real, so I finally just left it. I suppose somewhere in here is a line between art and map, and I'm afraid that problem is failing the artwork and settling for map.
Thanks again, Chashio, for all the good advice and the time you took to give it.
Cheers,
Cornelia
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