from matplotlib.patches import Circle import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid.anchored_artists import AnchoredDrawingArea fig=plt.figure(1, figsize=(3,3)) ax = plt.subplot(111) ada = AnchoredDrawingArea(40, 20, 0, 0, loc=1, pad=0., frameon=False) p1 = Circle((10, 10), 10) ada.drawing_area.add_artist(p1) p2 = Circle((30, 10), 5, fc="r") ada.drawing_area.add_artist(p2) ax.add_artist(ada) plt.show()