When I saw the video of the fellow playing the guitar my first thought was that he would rather be playing a steel guitar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0_hnGLR-jY for an example). I am told that the original style of guitar playing was with a bow, only later moving on to an exclusively strumming style (or plucking on banjo).

We all deal with a range of items here at the guild. There are photographs, pictures, maps, maps that we try to make look like photographs, and maps that we try to make look like pictures of maps. A photograph is a representation of the real world with all the laws, warts, and unimportant parts very much intact. A picture (I mean an artists's rendering in this context) is a graphical representation of an idea or possibly a real-world thing that emphasizes the important parts for the purpose of the picture. A map is a picture of a place in that it shows the important parts of a place for the purpose of the map. When we make a map look like a photograph we try very hard to includes all the lumps, bumps, and laws of the real world - the river police are very much part of this school of thought. When we make a picture of a map then we take a map and incorporate elements from outside the "mapness" such as parchment backgrounds, tattered edges, scroll parts, and all kinds of external elements to the image.

A map serves a purpose. If you can achieve that purpose using unconventional methods then it is still a proper map, even if the mountains are doing ungeological things or your rivers split in ungravitational ways. If the map suits your goals then it's the right thing. If you want your map to be plausible as a "real place" to all education levels, then you will need to add lumps and bumps peculiar to the real world. If you want to make a picture of a map then make a picture of a map.

I think that one way to avoid burnout is to try different tools and techniques, not just collect new shiny bits for your existing tools. It also helps to have projects that you're passionate about rather than just churning out lots and lots of the same sort of thing.