Improving Artistically & Loss of Portfolio

For the last year and a half, I have been trying to get into the game industry.  Every place I applied, my skills were either not "strong enough" or not what the company applied for was "seeking."  I have decided to take a sabbatical from the job search, and dedicate myself to my artistic improvement.  I have been reading books, watching tutorials (free and purchased), attending life drawing sessions, an talking with other artists about their techniques and workflow.

Progress has been less than ideal, but in no way am I going to give up.  Also, a few months ago, my computer suffered a horrible hard drive failure on my back up drive, basically trashing all my prior work (bye bye, portfolio!) which leaves me essentially at square one.  Surprisingly, this was an awesome situation to be in.  I basically start with a clean slate, artistically.  So, I started up this blog to start tracking my improvement, review games that I play (both Indie & Triple A), and to have a second form of backup for my new portfolio and works.