This is getting very old. Being sick means less work is done, which means less fun.
News:
On localhost, I have the tabbed interface working - mostly. Integrating with themes will be a real pain - I need to look into JQuery UI Tabs Module and see if I can steal some code from that. I'm also looking at the Farbtastic color picker, which is included with Drupal, and studying the Color module in core to figure out how to best utilize it. I'm also considering an option to leave my simple picker in instead, although I'll need to get it working with non Firefox browsers first.
In other words, I have so far not attempted any of the hard work. I did see a nurse practitioner today, and she seems to think I'll be a lot better very soon, so I'll be tackling the hard work at that point.
I also have decided to use part of my Google moeny to buy a Cintiq 12WX, which is a high-end graphic tablet/screen. This will help a lot in testing the "draw by hand function". (That's my excuse, anyway. Don't disabuse me of the notion that it's a justifiable purchase, please.)