illustration or web design?

[tomato_sauce]

I recently got accepted into a web design program, but I'm tempted by the school's illustration program. I like to draw since I was a kid and like to work with things that are organic. But I know if I got a web design degree and UI design, it will make me a lot of money, but I will be working with computer a lot and probably not so much in drawing. I'm in my late 20s and have already made a careering change to go from business to art, so I want to get into something lucrative to pay off all the debts I have been accumulating. In web design, there is graphic design, but not much illustration, it's mostly programming and computer graphic layout. What should I do? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the web design program. But when I go on a website, i get fascinated with the graphics more than the function of a web site. I like to interact with people, I go crazy if I don't interact with people, I'm assuming illustration is a lot of solitary work. Any advise would be appreciated!!!

[QueenGwenevere]

You could do both... I've certainly done both professionally, knowing web design is a handy skill for those times when illustration jobs are slow. As far as education goes, illustration is a more intensive learning experience and requires a lot of hands-on practice and feedback from people who know what they're talking about, so you might benefit from having good real-life teachers and classes to learn it.

You can learn a lot of the technical side of web design yourself through online tutorials and books (the O'Reilly books being some of the best.) In fact the educational material you can find online for learning tech stuff is often more up-to-date than what you'll learn in most schools.

Either way, it wouldn't hurt to take some graphic design classes - basic graphic design principles are good to know whether you intend to be a web designer or illustrator. Sometimes illustration programs offer graphic design classes for illustrators (my school did,) if your school does this you could go for the illustration program and take the graphic design classes along with the rest of the illustration classes.

If you want full-time work, though, it's true that most illustration is freelance (and hence solitary,) while there are more full-time design jobs. Not as many now as there used to be, but still more than full-time illustration jobs...