Hello Joseph, you said that you want a practice paper, I don't know if money is an issue for you but as a beginner you are going to use a lot of paper so you have to find the right balance between price and quality. Too high of a price and you encounters the risk of counting every single sheet of paper left, and too cheap you ain't going to be able to learn the appropriate techniques. Personally I used big kraft paper rolls, I tried some before finding one I like. You will then also be able to try different size as you are the one cutting it. Best paper will be the one you like to use. Hope this helps

Newsprint, A1. It's cheap, so you can make al the mistakes your need, and it's big so it helps you to use the biggest possible muscles, like shoulder and elbow.

From my personal experiences: One thing I really enjoy is simple cream colored card stock as a Bristol type smooth paper for sketching and quick studies. It's a bit darker than simple white paper, relatively affordable, and sold in packs. I like cutting it in half, hole punching the sides, tying it with string, and making a little travel sketchbook with it. If you want something with more tooth, mixed media paper is really good. I just did a graphite/charcoal on watercolor paper to try it out and I'm looking forward to doing more with it. But definitely try a bunch of stuff to see what works best for you!

Hey Joseph! I have personally tried A5, A4 and A3. In my experience A5 can be a bit limiting as it is a bit too small and doesn't have much room to capture flowy gesture & figure drawing. A3, can be good because it is quite large so there is lots of space to play with and you can fit quite a few drawings. My personal favourite though is A4, it is a happy size medium between the two, with enough space for gesture and figure drawing. I think the benefits of choosing A4 over A3 are that it is more transportable, it can help to kind of limit how much space you have (so as to not go overboard, but without being as limited as A5). I personally always have an A3 and A4 sketchbook on the go, with A3 being mainly for specifically larger pieces. I do all my gesture study on A4. As far as paper type, I think any standard art journal paper is good enough for pen and pencil, but if you experiment across mediums you will have different needs. But, this is all very personal and unique to everybody! You should definitely have a go at all sizes and paper type, and see if you can identify any limitations or challenges.. then you can develop a preference based on your own experience :) Hope this is helpful!