FEATURED GUESTS

YOUNG ARTISTS

Mentor gravitated toward art at the age of 8. His Art talent that eventually led to two full lifetime careers in Fine Arts and Films, wasn't supported by his family, neither emotionally, intellectually nor financially. What moral support and encouragement he did receive came from three teachers.

The night his father died, when he was 10, his sympathetic grade school teacher assisted the family and invited Mentor to stay at her home for the weekend. To distract him she gave him paper and pencils. She immediately noticed his artistic ability. Although she wasn't the art instructor his talent became her mission and she discussed it with everyone. She talked to Mentor about the fact that 'Art existed' and informed him that one could pursue it as a career.

Then in High School, an art teacher, actively directed him toward illustrating for the High School Newspaper, researched possibilities that might be available to him, entered him in art contests and applied for scholarships for him. Which of course he was promptly awarded, and in multiples.

One of the scholarship awards was for the best art school in the country, Chouinard Art Institute, now Disney's CAL ARTS in Valencia, California. There, Mentor's instructor was an artist, who he admired and who soon became his hero and benefactor. When Mentor could no longer continue to attend the classes the scholarship awards offered ~ due to his extreme lack of survival money, the artist/instructor suggested to the school's owner, Nelbert Chouinard, that she hire Mentor to teach the very classes he was attending. And that is exactly what happened.

Mentor taught at Chouinard Art Institute for 25 years. First he taught multiple classes out of necessity ~ as he needed the money. Later he taught for fun. A long time after his movie work was generating over ten times the money he was earning as an Art Instructor ~ Mentor continued to teach. He enjoyed it.

It was only when Motion Picture Studios began sending him around the world on Film Production Locations that his heavy schedule then prevented him from continuing this 'sub-career' in teaching. However, he did do seminars, and lectures and made Guest Appearances for personal satisfaction. He liked seeing the work of young artists. And he enjoyed discussing art. He knew about all of it from the earliest artisans who lived in caves...to the Masters...to an exhibit in a small neighborhood center. It was his thing.

Maybe due to his difficult start, in life and in art, Mentor was always motivated to help young artists. And so in honor of Mentor I invite young artists to participate in displaying a 'drawing'.

One requirement is that the drawing must be a Story Board.

Please visit Mentor's Filmography Pages. (See Menu) Look over the list of his Movie Titles. It doesn't matter if you've seen the film or not. Pick one that appeals to you.

Keep in mind that Mentor never saw a film before he created the drawings for it. His drawings created the film. He used his imagination. I want you to use yours.

First on an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper (your choice) with a charcoal pencil (or a very dark one) draw a rectangular shape about 6 X 9. This 'square' represents the perimeter of the camera's eye. You must draw the Story Board more or less within this 'camera's eye'. It's a point of view. A view point. Yours.

The Story Board Drawing is to be done in a horizontal and not a perpendicular space. The 6 X 9 inner rectangular space must also be horizontal and not perpendicular. The camera angle is 'fixed'. It is not open to an Artist's creative self expression.

Usually many hundreds of Story Boards are done for one film. The Producer and Director want to easily go through huge amounts of drawings with all of them facing in one direction. (For the Longest Day Mentor did around 4000 drawings.)

Draw what you believe would be a scene or a part of a scene that might be in this film. Your guess is OK. You won't be judged according to the scene you decide upon. Sometimes, Mentor worked on a movie before the script was written. Occasionally, no one knew what the scene would be about until after Mentor drew it. Sometimes the Producers would tell the writers to write the scene according to Mentor's drawings. His vision. Sometimes one of Mentor's visual conceptions would be needed to enhance the plot and to bridge a gap. So feel free to improvise.

Don't be timid. Let the title lead you.

Please don't draw the scene floating through space. It's a movie scene not an isolated psychic experience. When a scene is shot ~ some of it is inside the camera's eye and some of it is outside the 'camera's' focus. Keep that in mind.

Draw the part of the scene that you are depicting -- in focus, and inside the rectangular shape. Draw the part that isn't to be in focus but that common sense tells you is there -- outside the boundary. The scene and the drawing doesn't cut off abruptly. No sharp line contains the image. It's like the human eye. No empty space should be surrounding a lonely centered object. If an eye did that -- something would be very very wrong. Some of what you are looking at is clearly defined and some of it fades out into the outer edges. Your eye and the camera's eye is the same.

I suggest that if you want your drawing to be part of this Guest Feature, you should do your best to send it to me as soon as possible. "Toot Sweet". I don't know how long I will continue this segment. It's a whim.

Also please be mindful that I don't want attachments or downloads emailed to me and none will be opened. In fact sadly emails with attachments or downloads will be deleted.

Scan the image. An easy method is to first email the drawing to yourself and then when you receive it, you can Copy & Paste it into a new email for me. And please nothing that borders on porn will make it through the Delete click. This may not pertain to Young Artists, but could be the result of some Old Artists misplaced sense of proportion.

Email your Drawing and details to: YoungArtists@MentorHuebnerArt.com

In the SUBJECT window Input: Young Artists: A Story Board

In the MESSAGE window: Copy & Paste the Drawing

Include: Film Title * Artist's Full Name * Artist's Age * Artist's City & State

The Email -- the Drawing & the Data give permission to feature the drawing.

You can't tell where something like this could lead. A lot of Movie Producers and Directors visit this site. Maybe you will be discovered.

As I have stated elsewhere on this site, when Mentor taught LIFE DRAWING, as the students signed into the college accredited class, he told them they didn't have to worry about failing. He wanted them to draw for love not just for credits.

"I'm not teaching Calculus. Don't worry. Everyone will get an 'A' . 'A' for Art."

Same here.

Good Luck.

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YOUNG ARTISTS

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Gregory Huebner
Production Designer

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Louise Huebner. (c) 2003

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