First serious map, Manigae by Xerocode (WIP)

[Xerocode]

Hello everyone!

I will be trying to create my first solid looking map. I will let you know about my progress.
Manigae is a large island. I intend it to be one of building blocks for a full-scale world map (comparable to Earth).
File I'm working on is 1536 x 1536 px, island we see is 100 x 100 km large.

World setting:
Manigae island formed from volcanic eruptions, separate volcanoes merged to create it. Eruptions have ceased, resulting in a very unique landscape.

Climate is similar to Central Europe - hot summers and cold/snowy winters. Temperature range is not extreme.
Mountains on the North shield lands from cold ice masses (similar to Scandinavian mountains)
Very fertile land near the shores of the inner lake and rivers. Not a lot of it, but enough to provide the local populace.
Fishing is an important part of economy and culture for the people there.
Extensive cage system.
Some hot springs in mountains, creating small havens of vegetation green throughout the year.

Style I'm going for:
Hand-drawn black&white map on parchment. Will use brushes made by others and try to draw some unique items myself and scan them.

Tools used:
Photoshop CS5.

Tutorials used (for reference):
[Award Winner] Creating a Parchment Texture in Photoshop
[Award Winner] Hand-Drawn Mapping (for the Artistically Challenged)
[Award Winner] Saderan – a tutorial
How to get your rivers in the right place
List the Most Common "Reality" Errors!
and a few more.

"Brushes used:
Compass/
Cartography

Step #1
Creating the parchment
A small 512 x 512 px sample looks like this:


Step #2
Created the landmass:


Step #3
Applying parchment to the map:


Step #4
Analysing water flow. Apart from the lake with no way to the sea, it looks ok to me. I guess I need few more small rivers and lakes. Not enough waterbodies, given the map size (300 x 300 km).


Step #5
Changing island shape and water-flow. Should be more realistic now.


Step #6
I added volcanos, reduced (fictional) size of the island from 300 x 300 to approximately 100 x 100 kilometers.
Volcano height now is 3-4 kilometers, with other mountains and hills being much lower.
There might be too many rivers, given the island size, rivers in the island middle are more like small springs, I used 3 or 4px brush on them.
I did research on volcanic islands, such as Hawaii, Galapagos, Iceland, Japan and others. Looked at lots of photos, tried to use that in this map.
I added map description, map scale and a compass. Not sure if the compass design fits the map style.
I also went through all maps with "Cartographers Choice" award, to seek inspiration and get new ideas.
I also tried drawing mountains on paper, but I could not get the color to match my other brushes.



Step #7

Edited scale bar, compass and text to fit the overall style
Fixed coastlines. Not perfect, but better than before.
Changed rivers (again).
Added frame.
Added some map markers.
Changed background texture.

Step #8

Removed the woodcut effect. Changed font on compass. Fixed blood stains. Changed font ont on everything to "Cimbria".
Added displacement map on text labels, compass, scale bar and frame.

What went right	What went wrong	What I liked
Not much went right, really. Best thing I've got from doing this map is some experience with PhotoShop and refreshing my geography/geology knowledge. And satisfaction of learning, of course	1. Not enough thought put in about the geography of my island before I had already drawn all the mountains and rivers. 2. Scanning and using hand-drawn pictures. I tried to different manipulations, but hand-drawn items did not look same grey as ones I created with brushes. Something about colors I have yet to learn. 3. Not deciding on style before drawing the map. Mixing brushes made by others with items drawn by myself. 4. Not enough experience with Photoshop. Unable to follow tutorials. Need to learn the basics first. 5. Kept drawing in wrong layers.	1. Using height maps to implement realistic water-flow.

Questions:
How believable/realistical is this map? Land and water setting? I intuitively like what I've got so far, but I'm not sure if it looks believable.
Point out mistakes, give me tips, any kind of feedback is welcome.

Regards,
Xerocode.