Troye Antonio, who goes by Mannequinskin on Instagram Troye Antonio grew up as a creative child, always drawing and painting. Despite the affinity, he decided after high school he didn't want to go to school for art. When he was 21, his mother purchased makeup artist Danessa Myricks' videos. She encouraged him to watch them, which Antonio was initially reluctant to do. "I didn't want to be a stereotype, a gay boy who was into makeup," he said. Still, he eventually began watching them and something clicked. "That was the moment. I felt in my whole body that this was what I was meant to do. I can't explain it," he said. (He later enrolled in a makeup academy to hone his craft.) He also began to watch videos of his favorite Youtube makeup artist, Spencer Lopez, and downloaded her work to his screensaver and on his phone. Something about drawing on canvases didn't capture Antonio the way working on a person did. He felt
Tammi Marks-McDonald Q: You've been in the industry for 20 years. How have you seen it change the most? Do you think it's for better or worse? McDonald: “There have been so many changes. I think the internet has had one of the biggest influences in so many areas of our industry. 20 years ago there weren't makeup schools around to learn from. We had to study what we saw being produced and learn from each other and doing. While that is still the same today in many ways, the internet allows more education to reach more people worldwide. So influences are now broader than they ever were before. It also allows misinformation to spread as well and we see trends developing based off of stage makeup, makeup comedy videos, etc.and I think we need to be aware that what we hear isn't always correct. The internet also has allowed us as artists to share our work more easily with the birth of online magazines. Even the fashion industry is changing, e