I hesitate to post this here as I cringe at the thought of any one seeing it at this stage, but I can't seem to move forward so am desperately looking for feedback, and suggestions.

I'm new to fantasy cartography. I dabbled into it a few years back without success, and gave up quickly. I recently stumbled across an old map I'd started about 2 years ago, and decided to take another stab at it.

It started out as a hand drawn map in my sketchbook which I ruined by trying to add ink. It originally had mountains which I failed at miserably.

I would like to know what you guys think of my progress so far, and what I might do to improve it.

I scribbled in the patch of mountains, and ridge line last night with the intention of redoing them. The line work, and little bit of shading is sloppy. I just wanted to get the idea across so you guys could get a feel for where I'm going with it before I move on. I'd love to know if it's worth the time, and effort to continue in this style. I want to do the line work for all the mountains on the entire map before I start shading them in, I think this is where I'd like to go next.

I was also wondering what you guys think about the thickness of the lines on the mountains, and outline of the coast. I was wondering if the lines should be thinner.

And to my biggest gripe of the whole thing, the river openings. Originally it was my attempt at tapering them, but then it just ended up looking like giant cracks in the land with weird lines attached. there used to be mountains, so if it looks like theirs rivers coming from nowhere...it's because there is...I just don't quite know how to fix them.

I've been thinking of the border as kind of a place holder for now. I got those corner embellishments from deviant art some years ago, and don't plan on keeping them. I also used a texture overlay from there as well which is a much smaller resolution then my current file size, which is bugging me because I find it's a little fuzzy looking up close, but I like the way it effected the colours so I hesitate to remove it. If anyone has any ideas on how to resolve this it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm rambling on now, so I'll stop...But I would love to know you're thoughts, opinions, and any ideas on how to improve it. And to anyone who actually read all that...Thank you, I really would appreciate the help, because I feel really stuck right now.

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