When you begin your journey as an painter, you need a surface to display your artistic mind. There are commonly two surfaces widely used by artists : Canvas and Paper. Now in this article we will be discussing all the basic details you should know or be familiar with about these two surfaces.
Canvas
Starting off with Canvases! When you think of a canvas you probably think of something like this on the right. ~>
But not all canvases are the same. Canvases come in different sizes, shapes, materials and quality. Let's discuss all of it's features one by one.
Firstly, a Canvas is a strong, woven cloth traditionally used by artists as a support surface on which to paint. A canvas consists of two parts the cloth stretched over the frame, and the wooden frame. Both are equally important. The wooden frame of a canvas should be made to a smooth finish with crisp and straight lines. Some frames are made with such care, while many cheap ones often have crooked wood frames with protruding globs. Secondly the fabric weaved on to the frame has to also be taken in consideration. There are two main fabrics used on a canvas : Cotton and Linen.
Cotton is a more cheaper, and accessible material used in canvases. It has a relatively smooth texture and allows paint to adhere on its surface. It's suitable for both acrylic and oil paints. Many artists choose it for it's affordability and accessibility.
Linen is of higher quality than cotton due to it's durability and strength, making it generally more expensive than cotton. It has a slightly rougher texture compared to cotton giving it a better surface for paint application. Linen canvas are often used by professional artists who like to have a more finer surface for painting. They are also preferred by most oil painters due to their suitability with oil paints.
Moving on from materials, canvases come in two states: Primed or Unprimed. Before we talk about that lets discuss the word 'primed'.
What does a canvas being 'primed' mean?
A primer is a preparatory coat over a canvas before painting. It seals the canvas fabric, provides a smooth surface for paint application, and prevents the paint from sinking into the fibers. The preparatory coat over the canvas is called Gesso. It consists of a mixture of adhesive substances and an inert white pigment. Gesso serves the purpose of sealing, smoothing and preparing a surface for being painted upon.
Now lets get back to the two states. As we were discussing, not all canvas are primed. Some canvas are sold pre-primed, ready to paint on, while some require you to apply gesso or another primer before painting. In the area where I live we more commonly get pre-primed canvas, so I've never really primed a canvas myself, but many artists prefer to do so. When discussing priming a canvas there are other questions that come to mind, such as which primer you should use? How to apply it? How long to wait after application? But those questions are for another article!
I would just suggest getting a pre-primed canvas, it saves your time, but if you feel more content with doing it on your own, let me know, I might write an article on that process after trying it out!
Going on, let's discuss the different shapes and sizes of the canvas. Canvas come in various shapes including, rectangle, square, circular, oval, multi-paneled, triangular, hexagonal, Octagonal or other polygons. They can also be custom-made from certain manufacturers to give you irregular shapes like hearts and diamonds.
Canvas come in different sizes from the smallest being 2 by 2 inches and the largest exceeding 48 by 72 inches. You can canvases of various size and shapes easily available, though the most common shapes include squares, rectangles and circular and the most common sizes include the range between 8 to 12 inches either width or length or both.
Lastly let's discuss which of the features of the canvas make it suitable for which medium. We have four common mediums up for discussion today : Acrylic, Gouache, Oil and Watercolors.
As I've already mentioned, Cotton Canvases work well with both acrylic and oil, but more so for Acrylic because Acrylic is a versatile medium. Linen canvases work great with oil due to their durability against the oils. Now on the basis of primed and unprimed, Acrylic can be used on unprimed canvas but it's better to have a primed canvas. Having a primed canvas is always better as the paint sticks to the surface well, otherwise it get's absorbed by the fibers. For acrylics you don't to have a very high quality primer, but for oils I would suggest getting canvas that is properly primed or priming it yourself even after buying a pre-primed one.
Now on the topics of watercolor and gouache let me introduce you to two other canvas types. Gouache and watercolor can be applied to a cotton canvas, but to achieve better results there are : Cold Pressed Linen canvas and Watercolor Canvas. Both are ideal for such water-heavy mediums. They offer features akin to watercolor paper, making them well-liked among artists but many people still tend to get watercolor paper for these mediums instead. Oh, are you wondering what a watercolor paper is? I've been using that term for a while, so I suppose we should get on that topic now.
Watercolor Paper
Now first of all, the word 'paper' includes a vast range of options. Not all paper is the same and therefore not all paper is suited for painting. Watercolor paper as it's name suggests is a paper uniquely designed for watercolors only. Well by watercolors I mean water-based paint so it includes gouache and even acrylics. When choosing a paper to paint on with watercolors, there are three main things to keep an eye out for : Material, Texture and Weight.
What is paper made of? Wood, right? Yea well, paper can be made from a variety of materials. Traditional paper is made from recycled wood shavings, but it's too thin and absorbent to be used for painting with a water-heavy medium. So Material is important when choosing paper for painting. Getting a paper with 100% cotton built is best, but in case it's not that accessible getting one with a less percentage would be nice as well but try to get as high as you can. The more percentage of cotton in the paper the better it is for watercolor painting. 
Second thing to take into consideration is the weight of the paper. Now I'm sure you've noticed that all papers have differing weights. Some are so light that they practically have no weight, while some have a more heavier feel to them like chart papers. But you need watercolor paper and one that is just thick enough to hold out with the amount of water you use. The standard weight for a watercolor paper is 140lbs or 300g. If you find a pad with a higher weight than this, get it! But if not, just keep an eye out for future. Of course you can practice on this weight of papers and see if they suit you or you require thicker ones. I'm personally someone who uses a lot of water, so the thicker the paper the more at ease I feel.
Last thing on our list is Texture. Texture in the world of watercolor papers is referred to by two terms : Hot Pressed and Cold Pressed. Hot pressed means that it was smoothened by hot roller or plates and that it has a smooth finish. Cold pressed means that it has a rough texture, which allows paint to settle on the page better. Cold pressed paper is obtained after using a slower drying process, without the application of heat, allowing the fibers to settle naturally.
Both cold and hot pressed papers are good for watercolors and gouache. It mostly depends on the artists preference on textures. You can try both out to get a know how of the textures.
And with that we've discussed the ideal surfaces for all four common mediums. I hope you read it up till here. Thank you for reading and leave me any questions or feedback you may have!
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