the closest art colleges to you would be dasein (wangsa maju) and MIA (melawati) i suppose. neither are exactly famous for digital art, but you could always go check it out for yourself first. in the one, i think you'd get kinsun and leo in the illus. department. many others have left since the hey days. kinsun was my mentor too back in those days, and personally i think there's a lot you can learn from him. many principles that he taught me back then, i still uphold in the working world today.

alternatively, i suggest you just pick it up on the side by yourself.

in general i feel art colleges locally are a big waste of time and money. that being said, i was from the one academy back then. how much do you honestly learn if not for your own effort to look up design magazines and books, surf the net and see how other people did it? the basics in the foundation helps, because that gets you started on principles of basic design knowledge, color study and all that. beyond that, how good you can get, is not what the lecturer feeds you in class anymore, its about exposing yourself to the outside world, and hone your own senses. its like someone telling you about a good movie, and you watching it for yourself. its completely different, and truth be told ... irrelevant. i can describe to you how good a movie really is, and u might be a bit awed, but you could never truly know and feel, unless you experience it yourself. but hey, if i DIDNT tell you about the movie, and you went ahead and watched it yourself, you'd still get the same feeling no? thats the creative world for you. this isnt engineering or chemical science. there's no formulas you NEED to know. its all about your own senses, and no amount of teaching can build that. its something you need to know and feel for yourself.

as such, you've already went through basics once. majoring in another is quite a waste of time in my opinion. of course there's no denying that knowing how to paint and draw ON TOP of designing, it will undoubtedly give you an extra edge over the rest of the competition. but its something you can learn yourself

mmm i beg to differ. i'm a fulltime freelance artist myself for the past 8 years now, and i do commercial illustrations too in order to survive. and in paintings, i still need to judge the look and feel, the overall mood of the picture, what would suit the situation best. the actions and reactions of people in the picture if any, what would someone do, if placed in that situation, that scenario, at that point in time. what kind of clothes they wear, what kind of accessories. is it night? is it day? is there music playing in the background? is it windy? is it cloudy? the colors of everything, does it go together? do i want something to stand out? there's still a lot of these little things, colleges will never be able to teach you, and regardless of fine art or commercial art, it will still be applied. these are the things u need to build on. ultimately, its the same whether you learn design, illustration, web ... your design sense plays a pivotal role. and on a personal level, i like to google random images, listening to music that suits the mood of the painting, to inspire me to paint. of course, this doesnt mean i take my own time to do this, in commercial work, time is always of essence. u'll need to able to judge and act and start sketching out ideas within a few minutes. but one step at a time. again, its all about the art and design sense that you build up. the more you understand, the faster you can work.

digital or tradional, it makes no difference really. its just a medium. of course, there's many more shortcuts in digital granted, but i always thought it better if someone learns the long way and knows how to do it manually first. to me, its just about understanding how to do it. even up to today, while i know quite a lot about photoshop, i try not to resort to filters to achieve some effect, simply because of one thing ... it WILL look more rigid and fake, as opposed to painting it. the quality, the identity of the painting is an important factor to me, as an artist, and in such, i practice a same style of painting either in fine art or commercial art.

3dassets made a good point tho about knowing file types and compression. if your work is to be printed, know how big the final print will be, because you will need to adjust the size and resolution of your digital paintings accordingly.

of course, its all dependant on what you plan to do in the future. generally digital artists nowadays end up doing comics or concept art, occasionally matte paintings, for only that few various industries. not to say there's no other jobs, but these are the most common. in either of these, there's really not much need to know about intricate processes of printing. its good to know, even i read books and learn from printers about how things are done. but there usually will be other people thats going to handle these processes for you in the end

ah yea sad isnt it. bottom line is still that illustration is a very limited market here. but luckily, hiro has a background in design, which will open up the limits. unlike myself haha

yea it is the safer path honestly. there's still a lot of demand for designers locally. and it helps if you do web and flash as well.

interesting. i'm an illus grad from TOA as well. batch of 2001. what's his name?

lol we all know that story i guess. no love for them indeed. in fact i remember when dasein first started off, and a lot of students from the one caught wind, and jumped ship, it caused a whole uproar in the one lol. so much so tatsun and all had to personally see all the students that were thinking of leaving.

um anyway i dont always try to associate myself with the one. to me, people like tatsun sold out himself. an illustrator to a businessman that cares only for the money imo. the only person i really learned anything much from while in the one was from kinsun. i still have a lot of respect for him as a mentor and a friend, and many principles about work and life i've learned from him i still practice to today.

for myself however, even when i stepped into illustration, i was already well aware of the kind of crap i'd have to take out there lol. but i went ahead, but drawing and painting was something i had loved since i was a kid, so its not about the money nor the fame. my passion is my only driving force. hence i dont make a lot of money, i dont get to buy houses and nice big cars, like perhaps most of our other friends who are now art directors, creative directors, or lawyers and doctors and the likes. sometimes in fact, i just barely get by ... but i'm just happy being able to do what i love and love what i do. although ... occasionally i DO pick up a couple of logo designs, ui design, icons, etc. to make some money to survive

granted some agencies have offered me jobs as art director and the likes before ... but i dont really think its my thing. the pay is really good, the job is secure, but i just just love painting so much XD there's only 2 places that i hope to settle down in one day ... either with wizards of the coast or arenanet. if i had a fulltime job paying me 20k/month, and either one of them comes knocking offering me a job for 2k/month, i'll leave and head over without so much so a thought ...

but yknow this is just me. if you guys (3dassets aside, you would probably know better than us ) want something more secure as a career, make more money, dont consider being a fulltime artist lol

of course, learning something extra is ALWAYS a good thing. no matter what u learn it doesnt matter. knowledge is power (speaking of which, i feel its very useful for designers and such to pick up business and marketing. goes a long way) just dont feel like you have to pay 30-50k for it.