Arrive in Lagos and head to your hotel or guesthouse on Victoria Island or Lekki to drop bags and freshen up; take a brief rooftop or beachside sketch session to loosen up — the early light over the lagoon is perfect for fast compositional studies. Walk a short distance to a nearby café like Café Neo or Art Cafe Lagos for a relaxed breakfast, people-watching, and to plan your reference shots and pigment palette for the week.
Spend the afternoon wandering the neighborhood to orient yourself: sketch the modern high-rises and palm-lined streets of Victoria Island or the vibrant cul-de-sacs of Lekki Phase 1, then visit a local art supply shop (try The Canvas Shop or smaller vendors in Lekki) to top up paper, inks, or SD cards. If time permits, take a short drive to the nearby Lekki-Ikoyi Link Bridge for quick photographic studies of geometry and light, and capture candid urban scenes as commuters cross at golden-hour angles.
As dusk falls, head toward a lively street corner or beachfront promenade to document Lagosian street life — try Victoria Island’s restaurants and food stalls or Lekki’s Muri Okunola Park fringes for dynamic night sketches and low-light photography. End the night with an easy dinner at Yellow Chilli or a local suya spot, reviewing the day’s sketches and photos to mark ideas and locations you’ll revisit with more time during the week.
Start early with a brisk walk around Broad Street and the colonial-era facades near the Marina, sketching the layered shopfronts, ornate balconies and rusted ironwork as morning light sculpts textures — stop at a roadside tea stall for akara and small-talk with vendors to capture candid portrait references. Pop into the nearby Cathedral Church of Christ and the old Customs House forecourt for compositional studies of arches and shadow, using the quieter hours to make measured pen-and-ink studies.
Cross to the waterfront and take a short boat trip from the Marina to catch wide-angle views of the Lagos lagoon and the skyline; spend time at the Lagos Yacht Club pier and along the Marina promenade doing quick value studies and photographing reflections for later color work. Break for lunch at the Marina food stalls or Freedom Park’s cafés, then wander through the preserved buildings and open-air art displays on nearby Broad Street and Tafawa Balewa Square to gather textures and street life scenes.
As golden hour approaches, set up along the water’s edge near the National Museum or the Marina jetty to sketch the changing light on boats and concrete — the silhouette of fishermen and moored launch boats makes compelling foreground interest. Finish with dinner at a classic Lagos spot like Yellow Chilli (if nearby) or a modest local seafood grill, reviewing your morning sketches and planning which historic details to revisit for deeper studies tomorrow.
Head to Balogun Market on Lagos Island at first light to weave through narrow aisles of fabric, beads and produce — shoot tight color studies of ankara rolls and make quick portrait sketches of stallholders while asking permission and trading a smile or small print for a posed shot. Use the quieter early hours to practice gesture drawings of bargaining interactions and to collect texture references (woven baskets, metalware, dyed cloth) for later studio work.
Take a mid-day ferry or ride to Lekki Arts & Crafts Market for a more curated experience of Yoruba and contemporary crafts; photograph woodcarvings, brasswork and batik, and sit at one of the market’s shaded stalls to paint small plein-air studies of artisans at work. Break for a leisurely lunch at a nearby café (Try Art Café Lagos or a beachfront spot in Lekki) to catalog your images, back up cards, and plan portrait sessions with a few vendors you met earlier.
Return toward Victoria Island and spend golden hour capturing lively street portraits and environmental scenes around the Marina perimeter or along Adeola Odeku — hunt for neon-lit food stalls and suya vendors for low-light studies and candid character sketches. Finish the night by reviewing selects at your accommodation, noting which faces and motifs to follow up with repeat sessions on later days and preparing simple, polite permission phrases in Yoruba or Pidgin for future portrait work.
Rise before dawn and head to Bar Beach to catch the first light over the Atlantic — do quick tonal sketches of the shoreline, surfers and morning joggers while the soft pastel sky gives you clean color studies; grab a coffee from a beachside vendor and use the calm water reflections for compositional photography. From there, take a short boat ride out to Tarkwa Bay, where sheltered coves and fisherman’s canoes provide excellent foregrounds for wide coastal panoramas and studies of weathered wood and net textures.
After a relaxed picnic lunch on Tarkwa Bay, spend the afternoon with local fishermen and artists — arrange to watch (and respectfully sketch) net-mending and canoe carving, photographing hands, tools and salt-streaked faces for intimate portrait studies; wander the small beachfront shacks to capture color, pattern and found-material installations that inform your mixed-media ideas. If tide and time allow, hop back toward the mainland and visit Makoko’s stilt community for a guided canoe tour through the channels, making fast gesture drawings of daily activities and photographing the interplay of water, light and architecture.
Return to the mainland around golden hour and set up near the Lagos Marina approach or Bar Beach promenade to paint the warm backlight on boats and the skyline, using the silhouetted stilt houses of Makoko as memory references collected earlier in the day. Finish with dinner at a seaside grill (try The Yellow Chilli branch near Victoria Island or a trusted local bistro) while reviewing your sketches and selecting photos to refine into studio pieces, noting any individuals you’d like to contact again for follow-up portrait sessions.
Take an early intercity bus or short flight from Lagos to Ibadan, arriving mid-morning; settle into a centrally located guesthouse near Mapo or the University of Ibadan and do a quick rooftop or courtyard sketch to capture the softer inland light and the city’s broad, tree-lined streets. Head straight to the famous Mapo Hall and its surrounding market streets to photograph colonial-era facades, busy traders and street vendors while making small gesture drawings of passersby for later portrait work.
Walk or grab a short taxi to the University of Ibadan area for a quieter, green afternoon of architectural and botanical studies — sketch the shaded colonnades, the historic Main Library exterior and the botanical garden’s mature trees and sculptures, and visit the Department of Fine Arts if open to meet local students and view campus exhibitions. Stop for a late lunch at a nearby café or the university mess to exchange artistic tips with local students, back up your images, and compose a few tighter studies of campus details (ornate doorways, carved stonework) to inform new pieces.
As the sun sets, return toward the Mapo market district to capture warm-hued street scenes and the animated energy of Ibadan’s evening traders; set up a small plein-air study near Agodi Gate or Cocoa House views to record the city’s skyline and nightlife rituals. Finish the night with a hearty local dinner—try pounded yam and egusi or a trusted roadside suya spot—reviewing the day’s sketches and photos and noting which faces, buildings or motifs to follow up on New Year’s Day.
Begin the day with a calm rooftop sketching session that frames Cocoa House and the surrounding skyline at soft morning light, then walk down to Cocoa House itself to photograph its historic façade and make quick architectural studies of its concrete lines and shadow planes. Pop into the nearby National Museum of Unity to study and sketch Yoruba carvings, textiles and pottery up close, using the museum’s curated displays as reference for patterns and tonal studies you’ll refine later in the studio.
After a leisurely lunch at a nearby café, head to the Bodija market edge or the University of Ibadan’s museum annex for intimate portrait studies of local artisans and traders — ask to sketch vendors arranging wares and photograph hands at work to capture the textures and gestures you collected earlier in the trip. Spend a final hour in the botanical gardens or the university quadrangle doing small plein-air color tests and compositional thumbnails that synthesize Lagos coastal motifs with Ibadan’s inland palette.
As the day closes, set up a contemplative final painting session near Agodi or the Cocoa House viewing point to translate your strongest sketches and photos into a finished study, watching Ibadan’s warm sunset light recast familiar forms from the week. Finish with a celebratory local dinner—try amala with ofe nkan or a well-reviewed bistro near the museum—then back up and organize your files, noting which studies to develop once home and whom to contact if you plan future collaborative work in Nigeria.