Matplotlib is verbose, and has had an inconsistent API in the past (v3 has improved this a lot), but if you need to produce publication-quality figures using Python, taking the time to get comfortable with it pays off. I've been using it to produce maps and data visualisations for years – when I finally figure out how to make something look good, I put the notebook on Github, both for my own reference, and for others: https://github.com/urschrei/Geopython