I'm not sure if this is even in the right place.

I've decided to take the plunge, and instead of doing derivitive maps of worlds - like my Forgotten Realms ones - I want to finally do my own in PS.

At the same time, I want to start developing my own style. I like the way my FR maps come out, but that is really someone else's art (even when I draw parts myself). I'll probably stick to the same color-pallette, because I really like bright, colorful maps, but I want to do something more akin to what Clercon did with his Etrakien Map (with the mountains and forest).

Anyhow, I've watched the great How-to video for the mountains, and the Zombie Nirvana videos (again) for forest and what-not, and then went and created a 4'x3' Map.

I got as far as coloring the Sea blue.

I've never started COMPLETELY from scratch before, and now I'm at a loss. Should I have drawn the continents in and then added the water color? I think that might be whats throwing me off here...

Anyhow, I drew the map first by hand - just a rough sketch that took me about ten minutes - so it's not the 'creative' end that is stopping me.

I'm just not sure of the best approach to beginning. I think giving myself the water background first may have been a mistake, but I also don't know if I should start in the middle, or toward the outside, or whatever...

This is really strange for me, because I've always drawn maps for games by hand, and never had a problem like this. I'm also an experienced PS user... but I never strated a map without something to build off of before. I'm not even sure if the size was correct for what I'm doing (but I can always change that as I go along).

Any advice? What do most of you guys do first?