My code is working so far but I had to create a Class for the UIView. This is a bit inconvenient because I need to interact with the ViewController too. BTW, I did try [self setNeedsDisplay] on the ViewDidLoad of the UIViewController subclass file but it didn't work. Here's the code, which works on UIView Subclass but doesn't get called on a UIViewController one: - (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect { UIColor *currentColor = [UIColor redColor]; CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(); someNum = 1; CGContextBeginPath(context); CGContextMoveToPoint(context, 30, 40); [self addDotImageX:30 andY:40]; CGContextSetLineWidth(context, 2); CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(context, currentColor.CGColor); CGContextStrokePath(context); } Any ideas on what to try? BTW, this is a TabBar App. I know those can somehow block the calls to drawRect. The Tabs where created programatically, not through a Nib. Eg: NSMutableArray *listOfViewControllers = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; UIViewController *vc; vc = [[Education alloc] init]; vc.title = @"Education"; [listOfViewControllers addObject:vc]; vc.tabBarItem.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"info.png"]; [vc release]; I would appreciate any ideas. I've been through the answers on this site related to setNeedsDisplay not calling drawRect and haven't found an answer for my particular case. Thanks.