Acrylic, Gouache, box canvas, stretch canvas and lots more???

I’ve not the time to answer all these questions Zoe, but a box canvas has thicker stretcher bars than a stretched canvas. Personally, I don’t like them! They have a thicker profile when displayed on a wall, definitely not for me! The four pegs that you have, usually made of wood but can be plastic on the cheaper versions are to tighten the canvas should this be necessary. On a quality canvas these will rarely be required. I use Jackson’s Art for the majority of my stuff, but there are many others out there, all competitive with their prices.

Hello Zoe, there's some handy painting for beginners books that will explain in detail.  I am yet to understand it all fully so can't explain them myself. 

Hello Zoe, I usually buy my stuff from Ken Bromleys art supplies (online), and occasionally pop to a local shop if desparate for a particular paint. I'd recommend 'galeria" as a good value for money (acrylic) paint. I've never varnished an acrylic painting, but I do often finish with a layer of 'matt medium'. It evens out the different sheens, particularly if you're using several different brands of paint.

Wow, so many questions! I would suggest you first read up on the relative merits (and de-merits) of watercolour, acrylic and oils and choose one to start with.  I have no experience of acrylics but, in simple terms, watercolours can be unforgiving and oils can be messy! Both, however, have advantages. Also beware of the temptation to spend heaps of money on art supplies at art shops and online. Its so easy to get carried away with enthusiasm and buy stuff which you may never get around to using. I know from experience!

Well, some of those questions have been answered, but forgive me if I repeat some of those answers - it's easier than having to refer back all the time. Gouache is opaque watercolour - the medium is water, and it can be used thickly or thinly, usually on paper or card.  It can be re-wetted, though once you've finished a gouache painting, it's probably better to leave it. Acrylic paint is based on a resin, dries quite quickly, is spread about with water, or an acrylic medium, or a mixture of both.  Most brands can't be re-wetted, though you can paint on top of them, or obliterate them!  Most people apply a varnish to them when done, but it's not essential: they can also be framed under glass (so can gouache). Just to confuse us all, there's also a product called acrylic gouache - this looks like gouache, behaves a lot like gouache, but dries hard and insoluble.  And there are "interactive" acrylics, which can be re-wetted - I don't see much point in these; you could as easily use oil and have done with it!  But some people like them.   The wooden or plastic wedges you get with canvas are supposed to be slotted into the gaps in canvas stretcher bars, at each corner, if the canvas sags - though I've not noticed they make much difference one way or another, and as Alan Bickley says, your canvas shouldn't need to be tightened.  I have used them, but they're first aid at best: if your canvas has sagged badly, it probably needs to be taken off the stretcher bars and re-stretched. A box or 'gallery' canvas is one that has deep sides - on which some people like to paint.  All I'll say about that is that professionals don't paint the sides of their canvases.  The canvas itself MIGHT be marginally more stable, though - if you're going to use them, buy the Loxley brand.  Should you be varnishing your finished pieces - if using acrylic, yes, really.  The surface of acrylic paint is somewhat porous - dirt can sink into it.  I find that acrylic paintings are normally very easy to clean with a damp-ish cloth, but a varnish would render than unnecessary, and also brings sunken colours back to life.  (Oils also need either varnishing or framing behind glass - which few people do - but if you do varnish them, you need to wait for at least 5 months.) Value for money paint - there are many vfm acrylics: you'd find it a bit hard to discover an acrylic that wasn't.  But certainly Galeria, by Winsor and Newton, or System 3, from Daler Rowner; Chromacolour (only obtainable from the company's website), and Liquitex are also reasonably priced, and go a long way.  And there's a Graduate Acrylic, from D-R.  I wouldn't go too cheap - but when starting out, I'd just buy a few better tubes and add to them bit by bit - Winsor & Newton's Artist Quality Acrylic is very good, and also a little pricey; Daler-Rowney's Cryla is a good, strong, heavy-bodied paint (and happens to be one of my favourites), Golden are expensive, but top range; AP Vallejo are serviceable basic acrylics.  I haven't tried Old Holland acrylics, but OH don't do cheap..... Where's the best place to buy supplies - it would be much easier to tell you what the worst places are: The Range is to be avoided; W H Smith's own brand ditto.  The best places: Ken Bromley Art Supplies; Jacksons; Granthams Art Discount; Atlantis; Great Art (Gerstaecker); Cass Arts; Rosemary & Co (for brushes); and there are quite a few others - Pegasus, Dominoes, A P Fitzpatrick, The Canvas Store - and if you were after oils, I'd recommend a couple more.  Let me know if you are.   Paper or canvas - depends on what you're doing; paper is good for watercolour and gouache, canvas or rigid board for acrylics and oils - though I know some people paint with gouache on canvas (running a considerable risk of it cracking) and there are oil painting papers, and acrylic papers (though if you want to paint with acrylic on paper, I'd suggest using a heavy watercolour paper.  The problem with canvas is that it moves - not really a problem with acrylic, but it can be with oil, where, despite artists having used it for centuries, a rigid surface is actually better and would help minimize cracking.   Should you varnish paintings on paper - well; I have; and have sometimes applied a layer of acrylic resin over the top rather than varnish, but on reflection don't think I'd recommend that.  It isn't necessary if framing acrylics under glass - I think it is necessary for thicker painted acrylics on paper, but sometimes you're after a watercolour look, in which case - back to glass.   Finally (well: for now!) I'd echo Trevor Johnson's point - unless you're running into the millions, or are married to Richard Branson, don't go mad and splurge all your money on a vast range of colours, brushes, boards.  Go for quality, not quantity  - you can paint most figurative subjects with a maximum of 11 or 12 colours, and many need far fewer than that; get some good brushes - Rosemary & Co's are well priced, and Dalon brushes from Daler-Rowney are good with both w/colour and acrylic.  Buy the best paper and boards you can find - staff at Jacksons and Bromleys are very helpful with advice, or ask us here. And just to round things off, and assuming you're painting in acrylic, here's a suggested palette!  Titanium White; Quinacridone Violet (or Crimson Alizarine, which I wouldn't recommend in any other medium); Cadmium Red Light; Burnt Sienna; Cadmium Yellow Light; Hansa Yellow Lemon or Cadmium Lemon; Yellow Ochre; Raw Sienna; Viridian or Pthalo Green (violently strong, the latter); Cerulean Blue; French Ultramarine; Pthalo or Prussian Blue (both powerful blues).   Right, that should keep you going for a bit!

A box or 'gallery' canvas is one that has deep sides - on which some people like to paint.  All I'll say about that is that professionals don't paint the sides of their canvases.

I wish they did..... I can't stand the sides left white! I paint the sides, either a continuation of the picture, or a complementary colour.  Should I hang up my brushes now that I know I will never be a professional? 😂🤣😂🤣

No, I just wouldn't buy box canvases any more!  They have their virtues, but their ugliness  - whatever you do with them - exceeds them.  I can understand painting the sides, because yes, the plain white looks pretty ghastly, and anyway you're almost bound to mark them with paint, so they won't be pristine anyway.  But 'continuing' the painting - many do it.  But I wish they wouldn't. 

Oooo sorry Robert I come into that category, I always carry on my painting on the sides, but I'm still practicing on these box canvases, I've just got some canvas boards which I'm going to try next, from Art Direct at Granthams, who I have always bought my art supplies from for years, they are really very good 👍

I like painting on all three canvas types (box, stretch, flat), but started out with box canvas from a cost point of view as they don't need to be framed. More recently I've been using the stretch and flat canvas.  I second your recommendation for Loxley canvas, Robert. I won't use any other (particularly their box canvasses, as the corners and reverse are always so tidy). I think some painitngs look good on box canvas, amd some don't lend themselves to that style. 

There’s always the option of canvas boards Zoe - don’t think they’ve been mentioned yet. Stable, solid surface to work on, and easy to frame. I use these most of the time now for oils.