Don't try to make yourself do what you clearly don't have any interest in doing for the sole purpose of "getting into the industry". If you want to work in a medium-sized to large team as an artist, you shouldn't ever be expected to code. In my current small team, we even work around my poor level design skills, I just can't tell you in good faith that all teams you work in will be that accommodating. ;)
Really though, if your passion is for sculpting rocks, focus on being the guy who's the best at sculpting rocks. If your passion is character design, focus on learning how to construct humans and create strong designs. You'll have more fun with it, and I feel that in the future your chances of getting a job will be much higher with those skills in your portfolio than with the skills of an unenthusiastic and stunted programmer.
3. Artist ? Well, there are lot of artist, I would say the majority of roles in the AAA industry are artists. There are lot of branches, like environment artist, character artists, animators. If you want to have professional feedback, seek out forums which are crowded with professional game artists like polycount and ask for feedback/help.
I agree with this. Seriously, post your work or worries in the appropriate subforum at Polycount. They're notoriously harsh, but it's all in good faith, and there are a lot of people in the industry who visit the P&P forums daily who can give you informed advice. Not to belittle dA, but it's a community that coddles it's users and doesn't promote professional growth very well. So now that you've decided where you want to go, I suggest packing your bags for a more constructive site for now and get ready to buckle down and work hard.
You need to look into the specifics of what job you want in the industry. The bigger side of the industry has a lot of specialists-- big teams have people who only clean up clothing scans in Zbrush, or people who do background characters, or people who do props like garbage and rocks. In that kind of environment, Knowing how to do everything isn't much of a bonus. You don't need to have amazing skills in Environment art, AND Character art, AND Creature art, AND Animals etc because unless you're in a tiny indie team chances are you won't be expected to do ALL those things.
And on the 2D side, you need to figure out if you want to be the guy who puts together the art they show to magazines, hang up around the office, and put on the box. That first "concept" art kinda guy, or the (more likely to be in house and not contracted) job of the guy who puts together art they'll use in production. Eg, actual sprites and props, or production art like orthographics and references for 3D artists, modular scene breakdowns and character breakdowns with good facial ref and reference for ethnicity, what the clothes are made out of, etc. There are more jobs to break that down into, even then. Drawing every day doesn't get you very far unless you have a goal, so I'd really think about that.
Additionally;
I know that I need to practice those but it can be hard without using references and even with those references its still hard to figure out the layout.
Wait, hold up. Use references. All the time. In fact, drawing from imagination at this point will actually get you next to nowhere. How do you expect to draw something accurately if you don't know how it works? You need to study the construction of anything before you draw it. This breaks it down nice and simple for people new to the idea:
http://5019.deviantart.com/art/Tutorial-How-to-draw-anything-352414195
But check the links below to find some higher level advice regarding it, both ctrl+Paint and FZDSchool really advocate for the use of a "mental library" of objects and shapes and such, and I'm all for it. It will help communicate your designs more effectively, too. In fact, you can apply this to the human form and animal form, and once you have a good libary of anatomical and function ref from that, you should be able to more effectively create creatures. It all feeds into each other; knwoing lots about the functions and implied "feel" of animal parts can feed into vehicle creation, and that can feed into armor and character design... so on. 
Some links:
https://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL
http://www.ctrlpaint.com/
http://androidarts.com/art_tut.htm
http://www.polycount.com/forum/index.php ("general discussion" for your posts about general career path and artist doubt kinds of advice like this thread you've made here, the approprate "Pimping and Previews" subforum for threads on your portfolio, or a specific peice of art you want feedback on, or a project WIP thread. Check out other peoples threads, too, theres a lot of good advice around and lots of inspiration!)
Finally, it's alright to be shy, but try to break out a little. Polycount is pretty laid back (Well, most over there are just artists and art students, so I find it tends to feel quite homely), and if you post a lot and help some people you can do some minor networking there quite naturally as well. Try not to let your shyness get you down, and definitely don't think that you can't make it on your own. You're right that you need the opinions and advice of other people to really make some progress, but it's quite negative to say that without that help you just won't ever make it. Don't worry so much. 
Bleh, I talk too much. Just keep it up, hey? And post your art! I'd like to see it.
