Head over to:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/
and
http://forums.cgsociety.org/
These guys will really help you develop your drawing and painting skills.
I posted this in another thread but there's a PLE version of Maya that you can use to learn the package.
http://www.3dtotal.com/
That's not a bad place to hang around either. There are loads of forums and websites around, have a search round and see which ones suit you best.