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What sort of paint (also called a medium) to use?

This is one of the most important decisions you must make when you
start painting. You can choose between the most commonly used paints: oils,
acrylics, watercolours, and pastels.

What are the most popular advantages of each?

Acrylics: Very fast drying, mixed with water, easy cleaning of brushes,
can be overpainted without disturbing underlying layers, water-resistant,
so good also for murals and collages. Can be used thickly (impasto), like oils,
or in thin like watercolour.

Watercolours: Also mixed with water like acrylics. Fast drying.
Allows to make transparency layers or paint wet in wet, perfect for
landscapes and illustrations.

Pastels: There are two different type of pastels - Dry and Oil which
have very large usage. It's a favourable medium for fast drawing and
sketches also for thorough works of art. The colours can be mixed directly
on the paper. A very wide range of colours are available. Easy to use outside
the studio. Oil-based pastels can be thinned and blended with turpentine,
or scrapped off to reveal colours underneath, known as sgraffito.

Oils: That're one of the oldest paints being what the Old Masters used.
Can be used on canvas, wood and many other materials.
It dries slowly, allowing plenty of time to work and to blend colours.
The drying time can be dictate by proportion of oil to solvent.
Once dried, can be overpainted without disturbing underlying layers.
Rich, deep colours which maintain their intensity when dry.
Can be used thickly or in thin.There are also available and Water-based oils
for people who are allergic to the solvents.

What are the most popular disadvantages of each?

Acrylics: The fast drying make impossible to correct the picture when
it's already dried because it's completely waterproof. Except when are used
in thin washes, colours dry a bit darker than when applied.

Watercolours: Being quite transparent, it's hard to rectify or hide mistakes
in a watercolour painting. Need to allow for colours being lighter once they've
dried than how they appeared when you painted. There is no white paint in
watercolour the white comes from the paper you're painting on.

Pastels: Usually requires a greater range of colours to create a picture
than for other medium. Different brands and pigments vary in softness.
Sometimes the soft pastel works tend to be liable to smudgging.
This can be prevented by using a spray-on fixative.

Oils: Slow-drying, so consider working on several paintings at once.
Have to wait several months to ensure a painting is dry before it can be
varnished. Oils are more expensive than other colors.
Some people are allergic to the solvents so if you paint with oils you need to
work in a well-ventilated area.