help

Gesso is something you prime your canvas with before painting. Some canvasses are already primed.

You don't have to use it, but the surface won't be smooth and the paint might not hold so well. But I don't have too much knowledge about this.

>>2777871
If this is your first time trying oil paints, then my first piece of advice is to just go out and buy a beginner set of oil paints, brushes, and canvas/canvas board. Anything else will send you down a long dark rabbit hole of technical aspects that wont matter until your style and comfort with oil paint is solid.

To answer your question, Gesso is used to create a barrier between the canvas and the paint, as well as a medium for the oil to bond to. Without gesso, the oil would slowly deteriorate the cloth behind it. Don't worry about this in the beginning though. Any canvas you buy at any craft store will likely have gesso on it. If you aren't sure if it does, one way to tell is to look at the grain of the canvas to see if there is any kind of surface already painted on. Traditionally gesso is white and easy to spot, but toned gesso is becoming more popular. Canvas itself is more of a brownish to tan color. I wouldn't worry about your paint cracking, unless you are in the habit of baking your canvas right after painting it. If you follow some basic rules for letting the paint dry properly then your paint wont begin to crack for decades. This is a whole other conversation, but the basic principle with drying techniques is fat over lean. Basically, if your paint has a lot of oil in it, then it will take longer to dry. If your paint has less oil, then it will dry quicker.

As far as finishing a painting goes, varnish is necessary, but in this case it is not very important if you are just practicing and getting used to the medium. If you are finishing pieces that you intend to be able to display for decades, however, then varnish will create a protective coating on the outer layer of your painting that will protect it from exposure damage and help protect the color somewhat as well.

>>2777871
>>2778238
Since you are just getting into oils, you really wont have to worry about half of the things I went over. The best thing you could do at this point is to find artists that you enjoy and try and emulate their style. How do they use color? How much detail is necessary? Try and find out what they did to learn to use oil. STUDY THE BRUSH STROKES. Seriously. Go to a museum and get so close to the art that security gets pissed. My recommendation, if you aren't sure why this matters, look at the difference between William Bouguereau's and John Singer Sargent's brush work. Both are fantastic figure painters, but they accomplish this in very different ways.

Still lifes are great beginner practice. The models don't move, and you can sit there for as you need. Painting from life is easier (for me at least) and will teach you quite a bit about light and shadow.

That should be all you need to think about for now. Spend a little while with the basics and build out your equipment from there. It is very easy to buy all kinds of oils/adjuncts/thinners/brushes/easels/etc. but until you have a direction you want your work to go in, you will just be wasting your money. Enjoy the process and paint what you love.

>>2778249
thanks bruh, I've had some exposure to oil painting earlier this year; I was lucky enough to do a workshop with Eloy Morales, so I got a feel for the painting process/technique, just not the prep/finishing stuff.

>>2778352
>>2778352
Oh nice. Sounds like you have a grasp on the direction you want to go in. In that case, do you have any particular questions about techniques or preparation with oil?

Fair warning here, I consider myself to be an intermediate amateur, and most of what I know is self taught. I shouldn't speak too much into the particulars of one school or another, but if there are any intro oil painting things you are curious about then I am more than happy to share.