Thanks for the compliments and suggestions. Every suggestion helps. I consider myself a neophyte at best. The tutorials and help on this forum have helped me increase and advance my knowledge so I do not pass up any positive criticism. And because I see this "place" as exactly the kind of resource where we share our concepts and ideas, you are most welcome to use any ideas I post here however you see fit.

To the specifics of your suggestions.

I'm not thinking so much that the interior is not populated as much as there are few, if any population centers. Mostly small outposts and wandering tribes. I have this vision that the mostly desert continent in the shadow is Sahara-grade scorching hot. Still, a commerce center or two might not be completely inappropriate.

The HTML notation is #f6f4b9 (246 244 185) and/or f6f4d1 (246 244 209). Word of warning if you are using the Sparks brush in Gimp; it darkens the color so that the slightly off white becomes a yellowish color. I can only imagine that a darker color would become orange or something similar. See my post above for the specifics on the brush settings I used in Gimp (assuming that is what you are using). No idea what the Photoshop equivalent is.

I've considered rivers, but they would have to be mighty big (Nile or Amazon sized) to be visible from orbit.