Be Inspired to Reach beyond...

[Reginald Rutledge]

your usual skills in the game of miniature football!

I got a call from a kid last night from Sacramento, CA who happen to come across my website. He told me he had read my history in the game of miniature football and it had a profound effect on him. By those words, I was touched.

He began to tell of his passion for art and sports and how he wanted to know how to create "something from nothing". I told him, "I've been doing that all of my life". He wanted answers of how to make players come to life and how do I visualize what I do.

I told him that educating yourself on what the stock poses were made life so much simpler in creating any pose I've got. He asked me "How do you create so many diverse poses?" My answer was to him, "It's starring you right in the face". I told him no two poses are the same and any slight deviation of one from the other constitutes a new pose. I told him you've got to be willing to make mistakes, learn from the mistakes, and allow for criticism of those mistakes. If you can't do that, it will be difficult to grow.

He asked me about how do you know a figure works? I told him it does not hurt being a scientist by formal training, but knowing football and mimicking the movement of true-to-life athletes could be used in the game. I further told him that just a few years ago, figures of these kind were taboo are now en vogue in leagues and tourneys throughout the country.

Throughout the conversation, I could see this was an "Old Soul" sorta speak. He wanted to keep me on the phone for 3 hours. I am accessible and sometimes to my own disadvantage but I wanted this kid to get the knowledge to ensure that he could further his journey in customizing my figures. It was an enlightening exchange from a "young dog to an old dog".