Artists had to follow the conventions of Egyptian art. This limited how they could show people and objects. The most important person in a scene was always bigger than those around him (rarely her). One way of keeping the proportions right was to cover the area to be painted with a squared grid. Figures were drawn on the grid with a set number of squares for each element such as the head or the leg. The grid also gave a way of transferring a scale drawing to a temple or tomb wall.