David Ilan’s celebrity drawing career started more than a decade ago when actor Jerry Seinfeld saw some of his drawings. David was invited to draw the entire cast of “Seinfeld,” which was one of the hottest shows on television at the time. For the next 10 years, David drew strictly celebrities who have personally posed for him. Most of the drawings have been for the stars’ private use, but some have been created for other reasons. For example, one celebrity portrait was made for an auction benefiting the American Cancer Society.
David Ilan achieved international recognition for creating the original concept of "1 Dot = 1 Person" to bring more meaning to his art. Every dot he places on his canvas now represents a real person, and every David Ilan project has a charitable wing. He called his first project (which is still running) Points With Purpose. This powerful interactive work-of-art gives a voice to the survivors of rape or sexual abuse.
David has created several one-of-a-kind portraits using the "1 Dot = 1 Person" concept. People from more than 180 countries have dots placed in their honor in his globally popular portraits, including many renowned people. Celebrities who have dots in David Ilan's pointillism portraits include Maya Angelou, Scarlett Johansson, David Beckham, Dianna Ross, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Gladys Knight, Larry King, George Lopez, Mickey Rooney and Vanessa Williams, just to name a few.
David is also the artist behind the largest and most respected Michael Jackson Tribute in the world, called The Michael Jackson Tribute Portrait, which honors the King of Pop as the number one humanitarian in the world (according to the Guinness Book of World Records), and vows to inspire millions of fans to carry out his mission of making the world a better place.
Another David Ilan charitable project is for Special Olympics.
You can see samples of the artist’s work at www.DavidIlan.com.