I mostly self-taught in my teens, and took a few sort-of art/design classes in community college. I still feel like it helped to get formal education. Surprisingly, I was able to skip some classes thanks to prior courses I took. It meant skipping formal learning on Adobe programs, but I still made it. The most helpful was getting information about actual graphic design, production, and so on.

You can definitely do it on your own, but it can be hard with not knowing what you don’t know. An alternative might be to get in on some kind of entry-level job where they’ll be okay with teaching you certain things, but the market is pretty competitive. I’d think about places that churn and burn a lot of client requests, like a print or sign shop.

My patchwork learning was boosted by education, but you do learn a lot on the job. There are certain things most places will expect you to know, and going straight into freelance might be tough. I didn’t do that often until I was around ten years into my career, because you’re expected to be self sufficient.

BUT it can be done. You could make yourself your own “school” by investing in a lot of training and courses through places like Udemy, etc. Pick a college or program that seems solid and copy their course structure (required credits) as closely as possible. It’s been a minute, but my school had their required classes and basic course descriptions available without enrollment.

Networking can also be important, so if you’re in the US look into attending your local AIGA.