Artist Spotlight: Jai Prompito

With the publication of my short story "Steam", readers may have noticed a new style creating the cover art that accompany my short stories online. Jai Prompito and I met a little bit over a year ago through the Queer Erotic Content Creators Club, and I wanted to sit down with him to get to know more about his background and creative practice. Please read on for this latest edition of my Artist Spotlight series.

Christian Pan: Tell me a little bit about your art. What media do you work in, and what sorts of tools do you use? What is your process?

Jai Prompito: It's funny you should ask that - so, I am a professional artist full-time, and for that job I use traditional media, which is where my background lies. However, I have always had an illustration and fan art hobby, and in the past year or so I have really leaned into that. 

"Jai Prompito" is an alias for me, a "brand" separate from my other artwork, where I can have fun and exercise my digital art muscles! I mainly use my iPad and the app Procreate to make this type of work. I really enjoy how the app can imitate traditional media such as pencils, paints and pastels, so I try to incorporate that sort of texture into my style.

CP: Did you study visual art? If so, where? Who are some of your inspirations or influences?

JP: Yes! I have a BFA in my traditional craft field, and a minor in art history. I would say, however, that my illustration work has only a  little bit to do with that education. For my illustration work, I take a lot of influence from American comic books, as well as video games, anime and manga. I will say, some of the fundamental drawing skills I learned at school has helped, but honestly most of my skills have been learned by watching various tutorials online and a lot of practice, trial and error.

CP: Do you approach the creation of erotic art pieces differently than non-erotic art pieces? If yes, how so?

JP: I would say, not particularly. All the building blocks are the same, whether I'm painting a regular portrait or a beautiful nude man on his knees.

CP: Does your identity inform or manifest inside your art? If yes, how?

JP: Absolutely. I've felt a lot of freedom in expressing queer sex and love through illustration. Particularly, I have had a huge boost in inspiration drawing certain fandom characters with transgender anatomy, and seeing a positive response to that. As a gay, transgender man myself, it's very gratifying to see an audience responding positively to men who look like me.

CP: Promoting and sharing one´s creative work online has gotten increasingly difficult in recent years, especially for any sort of art that includes sexually explicit content or themes. How are you navigating this?

JP: This is my biggest challenge so far, to date - I am still pretty new at this, and I am having a very hard time finding a wide reach. I'm largely using social media, but I have never been particularly "good" at that.

CP: A number of artists today have legitimate concerns surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), and how this new technology is impacting art created by humans. What are your thoughts on this topic, and how are you responding to the influence of AI into the creative process? 

JP: Oof - what a topic! I am not a fan, and I will not be using generative AI myself anytime soon... I do find the raw generated images to be quite bland and uncanny, and I find the fact that most publicly available genAI models have been trained on millions of images that were taken from people without their consent to be largely unethical. I am not afraid of AI replacing what I do - I believe there is something very special about an artist's hand that can not be replicated artificially, and I think, soon enough, the novelty will wear off and the general public will realize how ugly and soulless those images are when you look at them for more than a few seconds.

CP: What do you hope people will experience or feel from seeing one of your images?

JP: That's a great question. I care more that my work makes someone feel something, in general, rather than what it is - I hope many people see something they can relate to on some level, that makes them feel seen. I hope I can convey a facial expression or a texture that gives the viewer a sense of comfort or excitement, makes them smile or blush.

CP: What projects are you working on now?

JP: Almost too many to keep track of - but that's MY problem!  At very present, I am hustling to create some new work for my very first vending venture as Jai Prompito.

CP: Anything you want us to know about? Anything coming up that you want us to know more about?

JP: I will be vending at a booth this year at FanExpo Boston next month (June 14-16)!  Though I have been doing craft shows and art shows for years, this will be my very first time stepping out under my illustration alias and giving this thing a shot. Wish me luck! ;)