I like your maps. I used to use Photoshop to make mine, as well. However, I got frustrated with it because I don't think it's very user-friendly. I switched to Paint Shop Pro.
As an example... (and, if this is bad message board etiquette, to post my own work on someone else's thread, I apologize and will remove it)... Here is what your
Caranthil Map could look like in Paint Shop Pro using the "tubes" feature.
"Tubes" just uses a series of pre-loaded images that you can size however you like, and just paint them into your picture. It includes quite a few choices including the trees like I used above, leaves, flowers, spiders, rocks, etc. You can also make your own tubes very easily. For example, you could scan in 4 or 5 pictures of orcs in various poses, and paint yourself an orc army! It's just a very cool feature, IMHO.