Heh, I dropped that style of cliff turning (from Wan back in 04/05) because technically speaking it's wrong; it makes the sides bigger. I do it this way nowadays as it's technically correct and in my opinion it looks nicer. The only slight "issue" with it is that you have to have an odd number of "layers", as an even number will make it look like a tile error (the little lined ones create small black lines).
As for your actual problem, I find big cliffs hard to turn in tight places. It has to be more gradual to look good.