ahhh traditional art XD I’ve been learning concept art and drawing for years before switching to 3D which suited me better. So I feel you haha But it’s still good practice to get the basics indeed. It can be quite frustrating though 
Keep it up and don’t despair haha
You’re drawings will probably look like 5 years old stuff at first but it’s quite normal so don’t worry about it
And no I’m not in the gaming industry. Tryin to get in for quite some time though. I’ve been improving for a while now, working with UE in environment art. Here’s a link to my stuff if you want a peek ArtStation - Daryl Kidjo
If you’re struggling with specific stuff, shoot I may help. A good book if you want to get a reference is “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. Don’t know how far they’re going to push you traditional art stuff but that could help.
I quickly checked out ReSTIR and it looks like cool in development tech ! I saw they had the paper attached to the page, but too much tech stuff and my brain melts haha But It’s awesome to know such things are developing !
Nice the stuff with Nvidia ! Didn’t know about that, thanks for sharing 
Especially being open-standard that’s clearly a plus. As you said, nanite etc is quite good for the industry development as a whole We’ll all need RTX card in a few years haha I’ll check that tech out too !
You got that jb, challenging yourself and always evolving is always greatly rewarding and interesting We evolve in a awesome industry for that haha