NATCHEZ — As long as he can remember William Fletcher has been drawing.

Now 22 years old the Natchez resident is rounding out his graphic design degree at the Art Institute of Phoenix.

“I’ve been drawing since first-grade,” Fletcher said. “When I was a kid my inspiration came from comic books, you know like superheros and stuff.”

Fletcher is back in Natchez for a limited time only, he is spending the summer with his family until he returns to school in the fall.

“I was born in Natchez; it’s a great place to grow up. There are a lot of older people in the community to teach you how to be yourself,” Fletcher said. “But now what really drives me in my pursuit of art is the fast paced competitive atmosphere of the west, everything here is slow and there it’s so fast.”

Fletcher works at Blankenstein’s Supply and Equipment in the summer and takes out his own loans to pay for school during the rest of the year.

“I just really want to make it on my own, with out the help of any one else, you know, so I can say I did it,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher said as much as he enjoys Natchez, his plans are to move to a larger city after college possibly San Francisco. Fletcher’s aspiration of big-city living is influenced by his aspirations with art.

“I would really like to design for the urban industry, like rap album covers or maybe magazine covers for like Source,” Fletcher said.

Not too long ago Fletcher designed his god brother, Termani Mitchell’s first album cover.

However while Fletcher hopes to make a living and name for himself with his graphic design he said his true artistic passion is sketching with pencil, actual hands on drawing.

Fletcher began his path to graphic design history at Natchez High when he designed all of the T-shirts for the school.

Since his days of sketching out superheros and silk screening T-shirts Fletcher has moved on to mastering his color pencil skills in such a way that it is difficult to decipher a picture he drew of T.I., a famous rap artist, from the actual photo he used as a model.