painting and finishing liquid latex

[drail14me]

I'm working on a large pumpkin scare crow. So far, I have the chest and hands built up with latex applied and dried. I used the paper towel method of getting the look of peeling skin. Now I want to paint and finish the latex.

I want to paint it a pumpkin vine green color then maybe apply a shellac or varnish to darken areas and give it a more decaying look.

My questions are:

1. How do you make paint from the liquid latex to avoid having to buy expensive latex paint? Just pour in some latex paint?

2. Is shellac the product I'm thinking of that will give the latex a darker translucent, crackled decaying look?

I thought I saw a post somewhere that demonstrated making a rotting corpse head. They used paper towels and cotton balls to give the skin look with the latex then I thought I saw where they coated it with several layers of shellac to give it a dark, rotting color.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Dennis

[susan from creepy hollow]

you can use some acrylic craft paint to color the latex. i'm not sure about the shellac, though... maybe someone else will know.
:)