My tablet pen nib shattered mid-stroke during a commission and I nearly lost it

Happened yesterday evening, working on a portrait for a client in Seattle. The nib just exploded inside the pen housing while I was doing fine detail work on the eyes. I spent 45 minutes digging plastic shards out with tweezers. Replaced the nib with one from a backup pack I had, but the pressure sensitivity felt off for the next hour. Has anyone else had a nib fail like that out of nowhere?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim_west1mo ago

Had a Wacom nib crack on me last year right in the middle of a client's eyelash layer. Made that same crunch sound and I just sat there staring at the screen for a solid minute. The feeling of pressure sensitivity going weird after a replacement is real, it took me about two hours before my brain adjusted and stopped second guessing every stroke. I think it happens because the replacement nibs never seat exactly the same as the original worn one, so the sensor reads things a tiny bit different. Sucks that it happened during a commission though, that extra stress just makes the whole thing worse. Hope your backup pack pulled through okay and you didn't have to buy a whole new pen.

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simonp471mo agoMost Upvoted

Man that eyelash layer crunch would've made me just close the whole program and walk away for the day.

olivia_harris191mo ago

And I remember reading somewhere that Wacom actually recommends breaking in new nibs on scrap paper for like 10 minutes before using them on real work, which seems tedious but honestly @kim_west your point about the sensor reading them differently makes me wonder if that's actually legit advice or just corporate fluff.