Manjit Thapp

Manjit Thapp is a 21 year old illustration student, who is in her third year of university. Her most recent process of drawing is to draw everything and pencil, scan, and add colour on Photoshop. She particularly likes to combine digital and traditional media together.              

From further looking at her short comic on Seasonal Affective Disorder, I’ve come to realise that she has really thought about the relevant ways to portray the symptom of SAD. Below I break down each page into the symptoms she displays.

Page 1: In this page I believe Manjit is referring to the link between people and nature. She’s demonstrating how to the benefits people with SAD the same way it benefits plants; they both need the sun.

Page 2: She again is emphasising this idea that the sun is benefiting plants and people. She demonstrates that the plants are healthy and full of life; again the hand touching the leaves is showing the link between people and nature. She shows that the sun is causing the person to feel happier; she’s walking around in the streets, being social and active, whilst the use of a laptop suggests that she can concentrate on her work. However, Thapp does subtly display that darker days are coming through the use of black in the blue skies.

Page 3: In this page she is displaying how the there is less sunlight by adding a -1 next to the yellow circle we can presume is the sun. She emphases the loss of sun with these short sentences; “The skies are turning grey. Autumn arrives. The sun hides behind the clouds. Night comes too soon.” With thee sentences you get a real sense of what the SAD sufferers’ thoughts are. In these pages I believe that she is beginning to portray the symptoms of depression i.e. the persistent low feeling. But this page shows a complete contrast to the page before therefore physically portraying the sudden mood changes. And lastly I feel the leaf is used to physically emphasis the change in season – summer to autumn.

Page 4: This page continues to show a contrast to the 2nd page as before we saw that the character could concentrate on her work but now we she here struggling to do work – the laptop screen shows a word document that is empty with only the line. I have also noticed that not only is there more grey involved but there is more yellow, which is a colour known to display anxiety, thus displaying another symptom of the inability to cope with everyday stresses i.e. anxiety. And lastly we see an image of the character with a plate of what I believe to pasta. Pasta is a carbohydrate therefore I believe Thapp is portraying the symptom of overeating and the particular craving for carbohydrates.

Page 5: In this page we have now completely lost colour, thus suggesting that the days are getting longer and darker i.e. the night is coming sooner. Furthermore the loss of sunlight displays its effect on both the person and the plant. From the way the leaves are dropping we can presume that the plant is dying – whilst this posture gives the plant quite a sad look which reflects the feeling of the girl. As another symptom of depression which is being tearful and feeling said. Furthermore the plant displays no colour, which relates to photosynthesis, as they need light energy to complete the process of making their leaves green. As with page 3, Thapp emphases the emotions through the thoughts of the character. In this one she says “During winter I am at my worst” this further emphases the feeling of depression.

Page 6: In this page she portrays the gloomy atmosphere of winter and how the trees have lost their leaves. We also see a set of closed curtains, with only one pair being yellow, we can only presume that these curtains belong to her character who is anxious for the sun – this is emphasised by the sentence “I can only wait” - which further displays how the days are getting longer and darker. Perhaps the closed curtain suggests that she is sleeping longer or during the day. And lastly she displays her character laying her head on the table, which to me portrays a sense of despair, alongside the lethargic feeling (lacking in energy).

Page 7: In this page she is demonstrating how the days are becoming lighter again and the sun is coming out more – this is emphasised by the +1 she adds. She further portrays this with the thought that “Slowly the days grow lighter and longer”. Page 8: The eyes display how she slowly opens her eyes to feel and she the sun on her face. The plants begin to grow again and the character feels slightly happier once more. This again is emphasised by the thoughts “Spring arrives. The circle continues.” Manjit Thapp consistently uses the circular shape within this comic to portray the endless circle of SAD, and how the symptoms keep on repeating during every season.

I believe that Thapp is successful in sensitively communicating the feeling behind seasonal affective disorder. By not only exploring the emotions that someone with SAD would experience but by involving the surroundings and nature. This is quite useful in communicating how the environment can affect their mood and behaviour. In addition, her use of plants allow Manjit to project the emotions of the character, thus creating the close link between people and nature. I also feel that the way she uses colours physically display the change in lighting and emotions, which in a sense alters the way I’m feeling i.e. I felt happier looking at the first few pages but as it went further I felt like that feeling lessoned. This is the sort of impact I would like to create within my own word so I think a zine or book could work well for this project theme.