Hi Ludolf
If you've gone to the effort of drawing a line on the map, identifying easily recognisable features enroute, calculating the rough time you expect to pass them and whether they will be left, right or on the nose, why would you start looking out at features on the ground and trying to fit them to the map. The aim is for navigation to take up as little brain power as possible so that you can concentrate on flying accurately and making sure you don't hit anything.
When you become lost, things are different; try to calculate what area you are in, based on time from last positive fix and hopefully identify a line feature from the map that you can turn to. If that fails, then start trying to identify features on the ground by referring to the map.
Cheers
TeeS