Well, I ditched my realistic style for now, in favour of an antique style... partly because I was finding it hard to get everything to look as realistic as the mts... partly cause I figured this style would be faster... I'm going for a sort of monochrome color scheme, and I think that so far its looking ok... not sure if I like the rivers, but the pts are growing on me pretty well...
EDIT: trying to find a style i like for swamps and deserts... (and eventually frozen tundra) Attached a map with my first attempts... (desert is NOT finished.. just looking at some symbols) any ideas?