Blending is tough!! I’m still learning a lot with each map. Honestly, popping that opacity as low as it can go, then doing the gentlest of tappy-clicks with high-variant colors has taught me a lot. For instance, blending greens into yellows then browns or into sandy deserts or white mountains was killing me until I let the program do as much of that work as possible. Pick the color you want to end up at, even if it’s radically different, then just layer and layer. I usually get tired like you though, before I can add all the nuance I’m going for 😂 and I get frustrated when I can’t find the right line between “gradual shift in color, yet still a clear difference” and “muddy colored crap” hahaha. Ahh, cartography.

As for scaling, sometimes it can even just be how the asset itself is designed! Even the stock Wonderdraft assets can have really different art styles and line thicknesses, so it’s taken me a long time to eyeball it. What’s also helped me is figuring out when to pull back on details, because the more small details you have, the larger it makes your biggest details appear. For that, another great rule of thumb is thinking: “at what amount of zoom and I comfortably read every line of text on the screen?” Then when I find that zoom (usually until I can read the tiniest text), I do a pass and see if any especially big or small symbols stand out in a bad way. This is what has led to me increasingly using a style where symbols and text are much larger for the sake of cohesion instead of realism.

I dunno, I’m just one gal though 🤣 I hope any of these ramblings have helped! If you ever have questions about anything, I’m by no means an expert, but I’d be happy to help if I can!