Try ALL.
Brown paper, mahjong paper and cloth. Best part is they are all cheap! Just try all and get a 'feel' for each when you work with the different materials. Along the way, you would have learnt a few things.
Oh, if you don't mind I offer an opinion when you said ?
Get a grasp of the basics first, then use what you know to explore. No use play masak masak rojak chap chye, because even if you get something very nice, you might not even know how you did it, or why it came out that way, and cannot repeat it.
haha! just tat wanna noe paper or cloth better or my dad will start nagging again. say i buy this n that then dun use.
i definately dun mind opinions n criticisms as long as they r not sacastic