Choosing from 37 painting surfaces in Easel by Zaweba

Picking a surface used to be a quick decision in Easel, with twelve to choose from. Version 1.1 raised the list to 37, and the choice now matters as much as it does in a real art shop. The surface is the first thing you decide on and the one thing you can't change halfway through, so it pays to know what each family is for.

Easel by Zaweba treats every surface as a material with its own tooth, absorbency and colour, and the tools react to it. That is why the wider range is more than a set of background textures. A pencil on sanded paper and the same pencil on tracing paper are two different experiences.

The papers and fabrics

The new list starts with the familiar. Rough watercolour paper joins the cold-pressed and hot-pressed sheets for anyone who wants granulating washes with plenty of texture. Raw and primed cotton duck and linen sit beside the stretched canvas, which gives oil and acrylic painters a choice between a thirsty, untreated cloth and one ready to take paint.

Then come the drawing papers. Toned paper is the classic ground for working from a mid value up to highlights and down to darks. Sanded paper is what pastel artists reach for when they want many layers to grip. Synthetic paper, kraft paper, newsprint and tracing paper round out the group, each with a very different feel. Newsprint is cheap and quick in real life, good for loose warm up sketches. Tracing paper is thin and smooth.

Rice paper, parchment and papyrus cover the older traditions. Rice paper suits sumi ink and loose brushwork, while parchment and papyrus give a historical look to calligraphy and lettering.

Boards, panels and hard ground

For painters who like a rigid support there is gessoed panel, clay board, hardboard and MDF. These are the surfaces you would pick for egg tempera, detailed oil work or anything you want to sand back and rework. Scraperboard is its own thing: a dark coated board that you scratch back to white with a blade, which suits engraving style illustration.

The hard, slick surfaces are aluminium, glass, glazed tile, slate, mirror and whiteboard. They behave very differently from paper because nothing soaks in. Slate gives chalk and pastel a natural home. Whiteboard pairs with dry wipe markers. Glass and mirror are good for experiments with transparent layers.

Finally there is wet plaster for fresco, the one surface built for a single technique, painting lime water pigment into plaster while it is still damp.

How to choose quickly

Start from the medium. If you are painting watercolour, pick a watercolour paper and decide how much texture you want. Rough shows granulation and broken washes, hot-pressed gives smooth, even areas. For pastel and charcoal, pick toned, sanded or coloured pastel paper. For oil and acrylic, pick canvas, linen or a panel.

Next think about the finished look. A kraft or toned ground means the paper itself becomes a mid tone in the picture, which saves you covering every inch. A white ground is better when the light in the picture comes from the paper showing through, as it does in watercolour.

Last, think about what you might want to undo. Slick surfaces such as glass, tile and synthetic paper wipe clean, which makes them forgiving for practice. Absorbent papers hold on to what you put down.

Mistakes worth avoiding

The commonest one is choosing a surface for its colour alone. A brown ground can come from kraft paper, a toned sheet or a clay board, and each takes paint very differently. Try a few strokes on two or three before you settle.

Another is picking a fibrous or thin paper for heavy wet work and then being surprised by what happens. Rice paper bleeds along its fibres, and thin papers can cockle when soaked. That is the point of those surfaces, but it's worth knowing before you flood a sheet.

Because the surface is set when you start a new picture, a short test on a small sheet is a sensible habit. It costs a minute and tells you whether your brush, your paint and the ground get on together.