Welcome to Meet the Artist, a new monthly series here at Fandango where we profile a different pop-culture artist. This month we meet Justin Harder, whose work has appeared in films like The Book of Life and Thor: The Dark World.

Check out our interview with Harder below, as well as the stories behind some of his favorite pieces. 

 

5 Ways To Get To Know Justin Harder

Pictured above: "Here's Loki on the throne, looking all conniving and such. Each brush stroke was done by hand and scanned into the computer to create brushes in photoshop. Each photoshop file was between 40 and 80 layers." -- Justin Harder

 

What he's worked on

Harder, along with his design and production studio Claus, has worked with a number of clients ranging from Marvel and Disney to Saturday Night Live and Hasbro. The movies he's contributed art to include The Book of Life, Thor: The Dark World, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Free Birds and Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.gh

You can check out some of the related art for those movies below. Harder also contributed original art for The Book of Life as part of an exclusive with us here at Fandango. Here are a couple of those images -- more can be found here.



His inspiration

Justin Harder: Making a connection, a memory. Getting my art in front of people at comic conventions and making that personal connection, seeing a smile. My family’s an inspiration, too. My grandfather was a phenomenal artist but could never quite make a living by drawing. I promised him I’d do it for us and have been fortunate that it’s been working out so far!

 

 



How he got started creating art 

Harder: I started as soon as I could hold a crayon, and then I never stopped. Growing up I wanted to become a Disney animator and get my name in the credits of a Disney film. It was my dream; my parents fully supported me, and it became our dream together. I was super fortunate for that. I still thank them constantly for being the pillars they were and continue to be for me.

After art college, I decided that being an animator wasn’t my calling, but I did get to concept on The Wild, a 2006 Disney animated film, and seeing my name up on the big screen with my parents there beside me was everything I ever dreamed it would be. So now I focus on telling my own stories and developing properties that can hopefully make it up there one day, too.
 

Pictured above: 'N.O.A.H.' is the intergalactic animal alliance created by the highest power in order to save the human race when they couldn't save themselves. -- Justin Harder


 

How he got started working on the title sequences for movies


Harder: In short: very hard work that led to a couple fortunate connections.

There's a studio in Culver City called Blur that does both commercial and entertainment work and I freelance for their commercial side quite a bit. Well, their entertainment side did all of the CG at the beginning of Thor: The Dark World and, from what I understand, Marvel asked them if they wanted to pitch on the ‘main-on-end’ title sequence for the film. They said sure, called me up, and I pitched an illustrative direction. Round after round later, they chose my look and away we went!

The Book of Life | Main on End Titles from Byron Slaybaugh on Vimeo.

 

Recently, we here at CLAUS had another awesome opportunity in concepting, designing and producing the main-on-end title sequence for The Book of Life (see above), a fantastic animated film out of the place I got my start, Reel FX in Dallas.

We also just finished pitches for some big upcoming movies that we haven’t heard back on yet, so fingers crossed!


 

 

And what's that creative process actually like?


Harder: It all starts with the film. Watch it as many times as you can, which, at those early stages, is sometimes difficult because it’s probably being edited and finished as your job begins. I was able to watch The Book of Life twice before we started work on the end titles and I believe our work benefited greatly from it.

To me, a designer is a problem-solver and the more context you can acquire, the more likely it is that you will be able to come up with an effective solution for the situation at hand. To me, a successful title sequence is one that supports the film, either tonally or conceptually, and helps drive the narrative. 
 

 

The Best of Justin Harder

We asked Justin to send us some of his favorite pieces along with the story behind each one, including his popular SQUINTS pieces, named after the squinting look of each character. Check it out.


Harder: Here's the drawing I use for the banner behind me at the conventions and the print of which sells out almost every time. He's one of the first SQUINTS I ever did. I've come a long way since, but there's something still very satisfying about this drawing. He is and is not Clint Eastwood. 



Harder: I grew up in Texas and even though I technically wasn't born in a barn, I sure do enjoy drawing them.

 

 

Harder: Some fan art of Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road. I am obsessed with capturing the essence of the form, the chaos in the gestural.


 


Harder: Here's some Cabin in the Woods fan art for Gallery 1988's 'Tribute to Joss Whedon' Show. Joss Whedon actually owns this piece and had to fend off Seth Green in order to purchase it. I saw it with my own eyes at the gallery opening!


Harder: Here are some recent 'SQUINTS' of Lobo and Elektra. Experimenting with more textures here, and actually rather tight in terms of the figure's execution.




 

 

Harder: After watching The Book of Life a couple times, I felt that we should give the audience a little breather at the end. The film is so rich, detailed and gorgeous that the only way to compliment would be to embrace the color palette and play up the wonderful shape language of the film's art direction. We used their story as a jumping off point for ours, sticking to it in many parts but definitely using metaphors in others.



 

 

Harder: Avengers: Age of Ultron concept design with Blur Studios. I used fractals as symbolism for the teams' perceived break-up. We didn't get to see the film before we pitched.

 

Harder: [For SNL: Weekend Update] I was asked to concept and design the new title sequence for the show, given a ton of behind-the-scenes footage and pictures, and all in the span of two days! Sometimes these things come together quick!

 

For more of Justin's art, check out the website for CLAUS, and you can follow him on Twitter @clausstudios.