My tablet pen died mid-stroke on a commission and I had to restart from scratch

I was working on a detailed portrait commission last Tuesday night, about 3 hours in, and my Wacom pen just stopped responding. Turns out the battery inside was completely dead and I didn't have a spare. I had to run to the store at 10 PM to grab a charging cable and by the time I got back, the pressure sensitivity calibration was all off. Lost about 45 minutes of blending work because the auto-save didn't catch that last layer. Has anyone else had a pen die at the worst possible moment and just had to power through?

2 comments

2 Comments

coleman.jade5d ago

My friend had this happen to her last month with her Huion pen, right in the middle of a wedding portrait she was nearly done with. She said the battery just gave out and she didnt have a spare either, so she had to drive to a 24 hour electronics store at midnight. By the time she got back and got it charged, the pen calibration was way off and it took her forever to get the pressure sensitivity right again. She ended up having to redo the bride's hair because the blending was all wrong on the saved layers. She was so frustrated she almost threw the tablet across the room... said she now keeps three spare charging cables in her bag at all times.

henry_kelly545d ago

My buddy Mark had a similar thing happen with his iPad stylus about two weeks ago. He was 4 hours into a fantasy landscape piece, the sky gradient was looking perfect, and then the tip just stopped registering any pressure. He spent a whole hour trying to force it to reconnect, restarting the tablet and the app, before realizing he had to drive to the Apple store 20 miles away. By the time he got back and got it working, the program had autosaved over his last three brush layers and the clouds looked like garbage. He says he keeps a portable charger in his art bag now specifically for that pen.