About the Illustrator

Ashton Griffin

Ashton Griffin, formerly known as Ashton Hinton, is a Shanghai-based narrative illustrator who loves telling stories. Using her life as inspiration, she captures day-to-day moments and childhood adventures in picture books and comics. Traditional tools are her joy, particularly gouache, watercolor, and colored pencils.

She has worked on a variety of projects including:

  • picture books & YA book covers

  • animation adverts

  • website assets

  • logo design

  • murals

  • gifs

Published works:

Upcoming works:

  • Picture book - When We Played Outside (Hinton)

  • Graphic novel - The Day We Met (Hinton)

More about Ashton

Ashton lives in Shanghai with the love of her life and fellow illustrator, Joshua Griffin. When they aren’t biking around drawing Shanghai or playing sports, they work in their home art studio on books and covers. During the day, Ashton works as a PE teacher and volleyball coach where she finds joy in championing her students.

Ashton received her Bachelor in Illustration from the University of Lincoln, while also being awarded Best Student in her class. After graduating in 2019, she started working as an Illustrator & Animator for a local tech company, as well as starting her own freelance business and online shop. In her spare time, Ashton volunteered at her local volleyball club as a Publicity Officer, and was also a volleyball coach for the University of Lincoln Volleyball Club for three years. In 2022 she moved to China to pursue her coaching aspirations and endeavor to complete her own picture books.

Even though Ashton is American, she has spent the majority of her life living internationally in countries such as Japan, Qatar, Germany, England, and now China. Her experiences living in different cultures inspire her work, and she enjoys any chance to celebrate the diversity of language, culture, and history.

Below are photos of newlywed Ashton and her husband Josh painting the sweet gazebo where they were just married.