Brushstroke Mandalas - Dots by Lina
New Course · Brushwork & Large Format

Big enough to
hang.

Twenty-eight lessons that take you from your first brushstroke on paper to a finished 22-inch mandala. Not a coaster. Not a stone. A piece that belongs on your wall.

28 Video lessons
6h 43m Of instruction
2 Techniques to choose from
Start painting - $167 → Was $237 · Lifetime access
A large hand-painted brushstroke mandala
Was $237
$167
Lifetime access · Free updates forever

"My art is my therapy - and without Lina
I would still be wandering the web." - Cheryl

Most dot art lives small. A stone, a coaster, an ornament. Beautiful - but easy to put in a drawer. This course is about the piece you don't put in a drawer: a twenty-two inch mandala, painted with brushes as well as dots, that people notice the moment they walk into the room.

Above the sofa Over the mantel In the hallway A wedding gift The piece you sign
The full journey

Nobody starts on the big board.

You practice first. On paper, with no pressure, until your hand knows what it's doing. Only then do we pick up the twenty-two inch round.

Practising brushstrokes on worksheets
Practise it

Six lessons of worksheets. Strokes, petals, flowers - on paper, where mistakes cost nothing and confidence gets built.

Planning a mandala design
Plan it

Choose your palette, sketch your grid, prep the board. Two grid methods - the traditional way and mine.

Painting a large mandala
Paint it

Two complete pieces, start to finish, in real time. One pre-sketched at 22 inches, one free flow at 21.

Finished varnished mandala
Finish it

Lift the guidelines, varnish it properly, and hang something you made with your own hands.

Mandala in progress
Finished brushstroke mandala
What's inside the course

The brush is a
different hand.

If you already dot, you know the rhythm - place, lift, repeat. A brush asks something else of you: pressure, direction, a little courage. This course teaches that second hand, slowly, and then puts both of them to work on a piece worth framing.

  • Brushstroke technique built from scratch on worksheets
  • Flowers, petals and layered floral elements
  • Building palettes that hold together across a large piece
  • Two ways to sketch a grid on a big round
  • The stencil technique — a 22-inch piece, start to finish
  • The free flow technique — a 21-inch piece, start to finish
  • A matching tea light holder from the same palette
  • Written notes, supply links and PDFs under every lesson
A few seconds of the real thing

This is what a brushstroke looks like.

Photographs show you the finished piece. They can't show you the moment the brush lifts — or the fact that most of this happens sitting outside on a quiet afternoon, which is rather the point.

Two ways to make a big piece

Pick the one that suits your nerves.

This isn't a course with one right answer. There are two complete techniques inside, taught in full, and you choose where to start. Most people eventually do both — and then start mixing them.

A stencilled mandala design in progress
Path one
Stencils & a plan

Your design goes onto the board before your brush does. You know what you're making, you can see it, and the painting becomes the calm part — filling in something already decided. A 22-inch piece, in three parts, in real time.

Start here if the blank board is the scary bit, or you'd simply rather relax into the painting than invent as you go.
A free flow mandala being painted without guidelines
Path two
Free flow & no map

A grid, a palette, and then you follow your hand. Nothing is drawn in advance. It's the technique that produces pieces you couldn't have planned — and the one that teaches you to trust yourself. A 21-inch piece, painted through.

Start here if you already dot comfortably and the part you actually want is the freedom.

"Two levels of comfort. Take whichever one you need today — the other one will still be there."

28 lessons · 8 modules · 6h 43m

Everything, in order.

No schedule and no deadline. Work through it over a weekend or a season - it's yours for good, and every lesson has written notes underneath it.

1. Start here11 min
  • Welcome
  • Basic materials
2. Your tools21 min
  • Brushes overview
  • Specialty paints
  • Using stones
3. Worksheets: building the hand1h 22m
  • Worksheets overview
  • Basic brush strokes
  • Basic designs
  • Flowers
  • Build your own design
  • Create your own worksheets
4. Colour that feels like you35 min
  • Working with colour palettes
  • Colour palette examples
  • Using AI to help with your palette
5. Design & prep1h 08m
  • Design planning
  • Traditional way of sketching the grid
  • My way of sketching the grid & prepping the board
  • Applying a base coat
6. Path one — stencils · 22″1h 38m

The structured road. Your design goes down before your brush does.

  • All about stencils
  • Palette for the pre-sketched design
  • Pre-sketched 22 inch mandala — part 1
  • Pre-sketched 22 inch mandala — part 2
  • Pre-sketched 22 inch mandala — part 3
7. Path two — free flow · 21″51 min

The open road. A grid, a palette, and wherever your hand takes it.

  • Palette for free flow & the tea light holder
  • Free flow 21 inch mandala
Bonus: the matching tea light holder28 min

Painted from the same palette as your free flow piece — that's why they share a lesson. The big round on the wall, the holder on the table below it. Painting only; no casting required.

8. Finishing9 min
  • How to fix mistakes
  • Removing guidelines & varnishing
If you're worried you'll ruin it

You will make mistakes.
All of them are fixable.

A blank twenty-two inch round is intimidating - I know, I've stared at plenty. That's why there's a whole lesson on fixing mistakes, and six on practising before you go anywhere near the board. Nothing here is a test. You can put it down for three weeks and pick it back up exactly where you left off.

Start when you're ready →
From students

Why people stay.

"Your soothing voice made each lesson a meditative experience. The mental health benefits have been profound."

Online student

"I finished in less than a week. It was like a good book I couldn't put down."

Lora

"Her soft voice and the therapeutic nature of dot art have been great for my anxiety."

Online student
Lina, your instructor
Your instructor
Hi, I'm Lina.
"I started with a nail dotting tool in 2010. I still have it."

I'm a Certified Art Therapy Practitioner and a dot artist with over ten years of practice. Dot art started as something I did to quiet my own head after work, and it's still that - I just happen to teach it now, to more than a thousand students.

This course took me longest to make, because brushwork is the thing people ask me about most and the thing I found hardest to learn myself. So I broke it into the smallest pieces I could: strokes before designs, paper before board, small before large. That's not a marketing structure. It's genuinely the order I wish someone had taught me in.

I'm here, too. If you get stuck, you can write to me - and unlike a lot of courses, that isn't a disclaimer. It's the reason I made this in the first place.

Ready when you are

Choose your path.

Every option includes lifetime access and every future lesson I add - at no extra cost, forever.

The course
Brushstroke Mandalas
Was $237
$167

The full course on its own. Best if you've already got a few dot art pieces behind you.

  • 28 video lessons · 6h 43m
  • Written notes & PDFs under every lesson
  • Full supply list with links and alternatives
  • Two complete mandalas, 21″ and 22″
  • Bonus small-format practice piece
  • Lifetime access + all future additions
Enrol for $167 →
Best value · All 4 levels
The Complete Path
Value: $593
$397

Every level, beginning to end. Confidence, Textured Dots, Advanced Elements and Brushstroke Mandalas.

  • Level 1 — The Dot Art Confidence Course
  • Level 2 — Textured Dots
  • Level 3 — Advanced Elements
  • Level 4 — Brushstroke Mandalas
  • Lifetime access to all four
Get all four - $397 →

Save $196 against buying separately

Questions?

A few things people ask.

Not officially - but you do need to be comfortable placing clean, consistent dots. If you're not there yet, start with the Dot Art Confidence Course, or take the two together in the bundle above. If you've already done Levels 1 to 3, you're more than ready.
No. That's precisely who the worksheet module is for - six lessons, on paper, starting from how to hold the brush. You won't touch the big board until your hand already knows the strokes.
Brushes, acrylics, a large wooden round, and the basics you likely already have. There's a full supply list inside the course with links and cheaper alternatives for everything, and a whole lesson walking through it. The 22-inch rounds are the main expense - everything else is modest.
Not at all. The techniques work at any size - plenty of students follow along on a 12-inch round the first time and go bigger later. The bonus tea light holder is there for exactly that reason.
Permanently - and that includes every new design and lesson I add later, free. I'm still painting, so this course will keep growing. Everyone who's already enrolled gets all of it.
Yes, absolutely. Anything you create in my courses is yours. I only ask that you don't present my designs as your own originals - beyond that, do whatever you like with your work.
Lina offers a 7-day refund window provided most lessons remain unopened. Questions before enrolling? Email hello@dotsbylina.com or DM @Dots.by.Lina on Instagram.