I've got the best results by picking a world that's sort of right in the general essence, and then editing it to make it more like the vision it generated in my head.

Sorry for hijacking the thread quite a bit, RyanosRealm!

Here is the design quandry in a nutshell.

On the left is an actual tracing of a section of the Himalayan watersheds. That's the ridges separating the rivers.

In yellow in the middle was a sketch I did of a grossly simplified idea - the central ridge with side spurs. About the only thing it has in common with the Himalayas is that the nodes (where the ridges join) are only ever 3-way. This would be relatively easy to create a set of symbols to emulate, but it doesn't look very realistic.

In white on the right is something that will probably look better, but which is horrendously complicated to create as a 'lego set' of individual symbols that can be used interchangeably for infinite variety.

So of course I'm going to try and do something that will work like the white pattern without being too complicated to use.

I think it might just work, though, if I take each section of the main spine with a single spur, like this.

Can you please click the colour swatch in the top bar to reveal the palette, and take a screen shot for us, RyanosRealm?

The ODW was written several years ago now. Since then there has been a notable blog, a new version of FT3, and at least one Cartographer's Annual that relate to it and update things somewhat. If you show me your palette I will have a better idea of how to help you from where you are, rather than trying to work it out in my head.

Thanks :)

I had the CorelDraw 11 Suite. After that it got too expensive to carry on, though, so I ended up more or less abandonning digital art till I got CC3.

You're welcome :)

Experimentation is a great way to find out what you can do with the sheet effects.