aaron leighton

Summer in Spirit City

Aaron Leighton — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:58:00 -0700

Did you know that the forgotten corners of the city are home to a variety of destitute nature spirits? It's true. Full of these somewhat sad, enigmatic creatures, my debut book, Spirit City Toronto, is now available! I'm currently working on setting up on–line purchase capability, but until then just e-mail me to order a copy (take a peek here if you'd like a preview). Big thanks and gratitude to Koyama Press for making it happen!

Bookmark USA

Aaron Leighton — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:06:00 -0700

My agent, Lindgren & Smith, recently asked each of their artists to illustrate a bookmark representing one of the 50 American states for an ambitious promotional project titled Bookmark USA. I chose the state of Arizona and depicted a kachina, one of a pantheon of protective spirits from Hopi mythology. Check out the rest of the fantastic bookmarks here.

As Yes As It Gets!

Aaron Leighton — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 09:08:00 -0700

As all Torontonians know, next week's G20 Summit will turn the city into a miserable tangle of concrete, chain-link and pepper spray. The one bright spot? The opening of As Yes As It Gets, a new, eye-popping show from Trio Magnus at Resistor Gallery (284 College St., 2nd Floor). It's happening next Thursday, June 24, at 7:00 pm, and yours truly will be in attendance, along with Steve Wilson and Clayton Hanmer, the other two-thirds of Trio Magnus. Aside from the six foot square drawings and one foot square silkscreen prints for sale, our good friend J. Bone will be exhibiting his fantastic yarn sculptures based on our characters. Come on out, and say YES to the ultimate anti-establishment event! Brought to you by Koyama Press.

Find Fins

Aaron Leighton — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:52:00 -0700

My pals over at zinc Roe recently finished up the latest in their series of fantastic toddler apps, Tickle Tap Apps, which I created the artwork for. The new app is called Find Fins and involves finding the fish character, Fins, in his underwater world amongst a crowd of other ocean creatures. I've always enjoyed drawing fish and their ilk, so this one was particularly fun. Have a look at the new app here.

TCAF 2010 recap

Aaron Leighton — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:05:00 -0700

Despite the fact that the weather last weekend resembled an icy monsoon, TCAF 2010 was bigger and better than ever. A big Trio Magnus thank you to everyone who came by our table and picked up our book and prints. Thanks also to everyone who bought my new book!

We saw lots of old friends and met some new ones, including Erik Jerezano of the Z'otz Collective, cool art teacher Tom Galambos, photographer Hitoshi Murakami and a host of fantastic illustrators including Marc Tessier, Hyein Lee, Jeremy Kai and Andrew Foerster.

As always, I was tempted to spend every single cent I made on the reams of fabulous books and comics for sale at the festival. Some of my favourite purchases included Pobody's Nerfect (another Koyama Press project) by Wowee Zonk, As Above So Below by Will Sweeney, The Troll King by Kolbeinn Karlsson, Hot Potatoe by Marc Bell, and last but not least, KENK by Alex Jansen, Jason Gilmore, Nick Marinkovich and Richard Poplak. And congrats to Michael Deforge for winning the Doug Wright Award for best emerging talent via his comic LOSE #1, published by Koyama Press. Big ups all around!

Note: in the photo below, a very lumberjacky-looking Steve Manale somehow replaced Cton in what was supposed to be a shot of Trio Magnus...

Spirit City Toronto debuts at TCAF 2010

Aaron Leighton — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:33:00 -0700

I've just wrapped up my first ever book project, published by Koyama Press! It's called Spirit City Toronto and combines illustration and photography to depict a variety of homeless nature spirits who, having lost their forests and streams, are forced to live in the forgotten corners of the city. The project combines three interests of mine, folk mythology, environmental issues and urban photography, and is a bit of a stylistic departure for me. To see a bunch of sample images click here, and if you'd like to order a copy please drop me a line.

I will be officially launching the book this weekend at TCAF along with some super-cool new collaborative prints which I did with my pals from Trio Magnus, Steve Wilson and Clayton Hanmer. Come on down to the Toronto Reference Library this Saturday and Sunday to check it all out!

The Fabler Interview

Aaron Leighton — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:48:00 -0800

I was recently did a little interview with Kevin de Vlaming of The Fabler, an up-and-coming comic blog based in Calgary. Read it here, and check out the rest of the site while you're at it. And just so this doesn't end up being an imageless post, here's a drawing from last night's Pen Club. It's crying pentagram face lady!

Trio Magnus video

Aaron Leighton — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:42:00 -0800

It's been awhile since Trio Magnus, the little collective I'm part of, has produced a collaborative project. However, for the last month we've been hooking up once a week, cracking tall cans of Sapporo and cranking out a 6 ft. square drawing each time. We plan to convert the drawings into smaller prints and sell them at an upcoming comic festival here in Toronto, so stay tuned for more info. Until then, enjoy this stop-motion video (thanks to our friend Arv of Ghostmilk Studios) of us creating the latest piece! Yours truly is in the brown sweater...

Happy Love Day

Aaron Leighton — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:34:00 -0800

Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day yesterday. K gave me an appropriately cheeseball card intended for an elderly recipient while I surprised her with a cool kitty card and knitted heart from Kid Icarus , a local shop here in T.O. run by our friends Mike and Bianca that sells wonderful hand-made goods. Check it out next time you're in Kensington Market!

Year of the Tiger

Aaron Leighton — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:38:00 -0800

According to Chinese astrology, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger. Sharpen up those claws - it's going to be a good one. Happy new year!