Texture creation help

[PlutonianEmpire]

A while back, I complained that the textures I created seemed too cartoony, especially when viewed in Celestia.

Here is an example:

bh_tex_1png.jpg

I managed to recolor an older texture to something marginally better:

bh_tex_2.jpg

But this is pretty much the best I can do.

Normally, when creating a new Earthlike planet, I go to the gimp tutorial in the Tutorials section, and I then copy the oceans and overlay them on a modified satellite image I have, and then recolor, which is pretty much the limit of my habitable planet creation abilities.

I've read here a few times that some quick recoloring can turn almost anything into a habitable planet in about 10 minutes, but I have no clue how to go around doing that.

Any help would be appreciated.

[John Van Vliet]

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