Spent 4 hours on a piece and my tablet pen died mid-stroke

I was working on this detailed portrait in my room last Saturday night, had the layers all set up perfect. About three hours in, my Wacom pen just stopped responding out of nowhere. I checked the battery and realized it was completely dead, the little indicator light was off. Ended up finishing the face with my mouse, which was a disaster (especially the eyes). Has anyone else had their hardware fail at the worst possible time during a digital art project?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliverhernandez1mo ago

Happened to me with my Huion tablet right in the middle of a commission piece. The worst part was the deadline was the next morning. I switched to my phone and used this free drawing app called Ibis Paint X, it actually saved me. Kept the sketch simple but got the job done. Now I always keep a backup stylus charged and ready to go.

jakejones1mo ago

Actually, Ibis Paint X is free but it has a subscription for the full feature set. I learned that the hard way when I tried to export a high res piece and it hit me with the watermark. Still a solid backup app though, just gotta watch the limits. Yeah, losing power in the middle of a stroke is brutal, makes me wish tablets still came with replaceable batteries like the old bamboo models.