I applaud your ambition, and your willingness to ask questions. I used to have a body shop, so here's my advice to you. Yes, tech schools that have a body/paint class would be an excellent choice to learn. You'll get a proper grounding in the basics, you'll get to meet visiting speakers from the various paint companies, and you'll be able to use the latest in equipment as most schools who are serious about these things will have the best guns, materials, and boothes. You could also go directly to work in the industry as an apprentice. You'd probably start as what's called a prepper. In other words, the "grunt" work, or at least what appears so. At that level, you'll learn how to clean a car properly. How to evaluate existing surface condition for proper preparation. How to get the surface ready to paint. You'll learn how to sweep floors and stuff trash cans. Then how to tape and mask. And how to clean the surface..........over, and over, and over again. Once it's ready to shoot, the "painter" takes over.

This may sound strange to you, because most people who don't paint think the spraying is the glory part. Wrong!! Prep is king!! If it isn't prepped right, putting shiney paint on it only emphasizes the wrongs. The biggest draw back to going straight into the industry and apprenticing is you might end up in a place where they won't, or can't, take the time to teach you correctly. That's why I would suggest a tech school.

While your artistic talents can be very useful, the key to being a successful painter is attention to detail and dedication to the craft. And experience, experience, experience. It can be very frustrating and time consuming when things don't go right, which WILL happen, and it can be one of the most rewarding crafts as well. Making beauty feels good.