Here is last week's map that I created during the live mapping session.

And I should say that I really like the current look. :D I think the variance of width looks good here.

Very sad to hear of his passing. His memory will live on in his maps for me.

Hi folks! My apologies, but I have to cancel the live video for tonight. There is a bit of a bug going around here, and my voice has been affected since last night. It's in no shape for an hour of talking.

The problem seem to the brightness of the Texturize effect, which you've set to 100%. That removes all the shadow. Try setting it to 80% or something like that.