I have never paid for a course in my life and yet I make my living from 3d only. It MIGHT be a good idea. Can we say definitely? I don’t think so. I have seen people hoping that if they spend the right amount of money on it they will learn. Well… it doesn’t happen because of the material investment, that’s for sure. One needs to be prepared to learn no matter the circumstances. There is so much material online on the subject - you really do not HAVE to buy anything. You can… but do not have to.
If you want to learn 3d modeling, read the documentation of the software, go through all the modeling functions one by one and learn what they do, then model things. Then model some more. And then do some more modeling and watch some tutorials online, see how people do it. And guess what? Yes, do more modeling after that. That’s all. If you want to learn to draw, you should draw, if you want to learn 3d modeling, you should do modeling It’s simple. Now this method does not work if you are trying to become an engineer, or learn to pilot a plane :D, but it does with modeling.
It’s a good idea to have goals. They should be realistic. Do not start with modeling Iron Man your first day. Model a lighter, a spoon, a chair - gradually increase the size and complexity. Also motivation is the most important thing here, so share the work when you succeed in getting good results, show it to your friends, don’t be afraid to show off. People who like your work and all those ‘Wow! how did you do that?’ will encourage you to move forward and if you don’t get those, you will instead get feedback that you can use to get better. I think it’s a really good idea to try to impress people with your work - it gives you motivation and pleasure and it makes you think of how to use skills that you have at the moment to the fullest. From my experience lack of motivation is the main reason people fail at this so don’t underestimate the importance of it.
Modeling has two parts to it:
* Technical - the software
* Artistic - sculpture
You should address both. Sculpture is essential, as it includes understanding shapes and seeing the world in a different way - you need to learn to think of objects in terms of basic shapes and how you are going to form them using your 3d tools. Be aware of that. Sometimes you think you are unable to achieve results because of the complexity of the software, but in fact you struggle with understanding the shapes. In this case you need to observe the shapes you are trying to model more closely while watching another tutorial on how to use one software function or another might not be that useful. Realize that and address the right problems.
Another thing - learning character modeling and character design are two completely separate things. That also is important. Its essential to have a good design in order to model amassing things. On the other hand, you don’t need to model your designs while learning to model. Don’t be ashamed to use some other art or whatever you see for inspiration.
You said you have the basics. Could you show us where are you at at the moment? Could you post a few images of your best current work?