Thanks, Jayjaycee1! I appreciate that. I know I would feel way out of my depth too, and I’m humbled by the sheer talent that I’ve seen from some of the students at Art Center in Pasadena, CA where I visited recently. Stanford uni (another school I wish I could go to) is a bit far from me, as it’s up north in San Fran/San Jose, and I’m down here in the L.A. area.
I’ve spoken with some of the staff at Art Center, as it’s the nearest art/design school to where I live, and I quite enjoyed my little visit there. Art Center’s tuition is prohibitively expensive for me, tho, and so now my main issue I’m trying to sort out is how would I pay for it? I can’t realistically quit my job and be a full-time student, as much as I would like to. Bills and rent aren’t going to pay themselves. Plus in order for me to actually start going there and be able to devote my 110% effort to my studies, I’d need to move there and find another job closer to there. It’s not insurmountable, but it won’t be easy, that’s for sure.
I’m thinking about leaving Art Center alone for now and just taking some art/design classes at El Camino College, which is a local community college in my area near where I live (which is relatively cheap to attend and has a pretty good art program), just to get my drawing/sketching skills more polished and up to speed. That way I could acclimatize myself to being a student and then maybe Art Center wouldn’t be such a shock to the old system, if I can find a way to afford to go there later on.