Canadian illustrator Serena Malyon has a remarkable ability to make an entire story feel present within a single image. A knight crosses a landscape of impossible scale. A giant reaches toward a human figure. A medieval-looking character steps into a scene that could just as easily belong to a fantasy novel. Her illustrations invite the eye to wander through details, characters, landscapes, and symbols, as though every corner might contain another chapter.

Malyon’s love of storytelling began long before she became a professional illustrator. Raised in a family of artists, she spent her early years drawing knights and maidens from the books around her, eventually discovering illustration as a profession that brought together two things she already loved: reading and painting. Since graduating from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2012, she has built a career spanning children’s books, fantasy covers, maps, graphic novels, textbooks, tabletop games, and video games.

Painting by Hand

Watercolour and acryla gouache remain central to Malyon’s process, giving her illustrations a physical quality that survives even as digital tools become an increasingly common part of contemporary illustration. She begins by mixing colours in watercolour to establish her palette, then uses acryla gouache to refine and polish the finished image. Photoshop remains part of the process, particularly for client work, colour correction, and the less glamorous task of removing cat hair from otherwise finished paintings.

That combination of old and new reflects the broader character of her work. Historical influences do not lead her toward imitation. Instead, she draws from older visual languages while pairing them with contemporary compositions and colours, creating a style that feels both familiar and distinctly her own. The resulting images have the atmosphere of illustrated folklore while remaining vibrant, accessible, and unmistakably contemporary.

Building a World of Her Own

One of Malyon’s most meaningful projects began with something as seemingly simple as a map. Some time ago, she created a map for a friend and was then challenged to write a story set within the world it depicted. The idea took hold quickly. As the world developed, she filled sketchbooks with dozens of illustration thumbnails, creating a growing body of imagery that could exist independently of her client work.

That personal world has become an ongoing creative laboratory. Whenever she has a break from commissioned projects, she can return to her sketchbook and choose another scene to develop, allowing each painting to push her skills a little further. She hopes eventually to publish the story, or perhaps an art book devoted to the world, but even without that final publication, the project has already given her something valuable: a body of work created entirely from her own imagination.

Giants and Mice

Among Malyon’s personal projects, her series of giants has become a particularly exciting avenue for exploration. She describes the project as an investigation of elemental giants and their symbiotic relationships with humanity, an idea that has left her with an abundance of possibilities to explore. The scale of these figures allows her fascination with storytelling and worldbuilding to become especially literal, placing humans within a much larger natural and mythical framework.

Her work on the Mouse Guard Alphabet Book, meanwhile, gave her the opportunity to enter an established fictional universe. Working with Mouse Guard creator David Petersen and BOOM! Studios, she illustrated a children’s book set within his world of sentient medieval mice. Malyon describes the project as a privilege, particularly because it allowed her to contribute to the mythology of a series she admired.

Malyon’s career also carries a quieter story of persistence. After graduating in 2012, she spent several years working part-time jobs while building her illustration practice, becoming a full-time artist in 2017. Since then, her work has reached an unusually broad range of applications, from publishing and magazines to maps, games, textbooks, and private commissions. She now supports herself through commissioned work, original paintings, prints, and online process streams.

For Malyon, that journey has reinforced an idea that extends beyond her own career. She believes artists benefit from sharing knowledge rather than protecting it, whether that means discussing techniques, commission pricing, or self-promotion. Much of her own growth came through friends sharing her work and art directors taking a chance on her. In an industry that can sometimes feel competitive, she sees generosity as something that keeps the creative community moving forward.