I really like how Oliver broke down the pros and cons. From my own experience, I basically started digital painting WAY before I was ready for it (I know you are probably referring to traditional painting, but I think my story will still apply haha). The cons of doing this was that it was a fairly frustrating and long process to try to make my way on my own. The major upside was that my bad paintings made it very clear to me exactly what fundamentals I needed to work on. As a result, I was super charged and pumped to learn about really basic stuff like drawing perfect spheres or cubes, because I knew exactly where I could apply this information to make my paintings better. I feel like this level of energy and excitement is what is going to push you through in your studies. Again, I cannot stress enough about how right Oliver is about making bad habits. I've been digitally painting for years, and I'm still in the process of cleaning up all of my fundamentals. I'm sure the structure that the Watts Course will save you a lot of headache and guesswork down the line, as long as you diligently follow their course.

I think it depends on how much time you have to draw/paint. If you feel like you have the time to get enough drawing in to get the point of the course and then some - go ahead, I think Yiming Wu is making a good point and cross training is a good thing :)) However, if painting now means that you can't make the time to draw, I would wait a little longer seeing as you have a source of critiques on the drawing, probably not the painting. Besides, if you form bad habits by starting to paint on your own, you might take longer than starting fresh with great guidance.

Why not? :D If you feel like doing it you can try in advance, and also applying the stuff you already learned into your preliminary practices. There's not a set rule to doing those things, and if you explore a bit on your own, you will have a better understanding when the course reaches the part you are interested in.