Getting back to my earlier post and the question about the possibilities of the new iPad Pro, split screen and the Apple Pencil as a way of practicing writing characters, I want to report on my own experience, now that I finally have an Apple Pencil.
I used traditional white boards and markers for this for the first couple of years studying Chinese, then stopped, partly due to lack of time but also because of the bother of messing with white boards (which seem to be seldom white and always dirty) (and not happy with the alternative of wasting large amounts of paper).
Well, I know the iPad Pro/Apple Pencil is a high cost alternative, but with the right software it works very well. Some programs still suffer from noticeable latency with the pencil, but I've found that Procreate works very well. There is virtually no latency using the Pencil, Procreate includes a calligraphy pen, and many more brushes as well, plus the option of creating your own. It also-crucially--supports the new split screen mode. Not all programs do. Zen Brush does, but has very noticeable latency. Paper from FiftyThree has a beautiful pen and low latency, but doesn't support split screen. With Procreate at 3/4 screen and Pleco open in the sidebar who have have a model text to work from, access to the stoke animations within Pleco when needed, and a large canvas to write on. Procreate also has nice commands for clearing the canvas when you have filled it up, much faster (and clearer!) than wiping a whiteboard. The Apple Pencil feels like a pencil and is fun to write with. All in all, a virtually perfect way to practice writing characters. Though I'm not recommending that anyone run out and buy an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil just for this, if you already have one or plan to get one for whatever reasons, definitely try this out. Procreate is $6, which in my opinion IS worth buying just for this, even if you don't need a full feature drawing program (PS I have no ties to this company; I just found it reviewed on the web and bought it, after being dissatisfied with Zen Brush, Paper and also Adobe's Sketch, all good programs in their own right, but not the best for this purpose). I think actually writing characters is very important, both in terms of learning characters well and also for appreciating the value of actually writing (as distinct from merely reading) characters in Chinese culture. But it can be a lot of bother and can be time consuming, and thus easy to avoid as a routine practice. This is, pedagogically speaking, a great option. It's still not a brush on paper, but perhaps the next best thing, at least when viewed more from the angle of learning rather than from the angle of art.