from pylab import * from matplotlib.patches import Ellipse delta = 45.0 # degrees angles = arange(0, 360+delta, delta) ells = [Ellipse((1, 1), 4, 2, a) for a in angles] a = subplot(111, aspect='equal') for e in ells: e.set_clip_box(a.bbox) e.set_alpha(0.1) a.add_artist(e) xlim(-2, 4) ylim(-1, 3) show()