Building the Foundation: An Overview of the GS Platform
The Sketchbooks Plugin Suite for Sketchbooks.org represents a cohesive and custom-developed ecosystem engineered to manage every aspect of the platform, from member registration and data visualization to complex, multi-day creative challenges. Built with PHP, JavaScript, CSS, Ajax, JSON: this integrated system of proprietary plugins works in concert with custom enhancements built into WordPress CMS and an Astra Child Theme, ensuring seamless functionality and a unified user experience across the entire digital environment. The following sections detail the core responsibilities and technical function of each component, providing a roadmap for its continued development.
A Philosophy of Cost-Effective Development
A central tenet of this project is the commitment to operational efficiency with NO Clutter. As a self-funded hobby project, the platform is designed to maintain functional excellence while strictly minimizing operational expenditures. The entire environment is run exclusively on custom-built, proprietary plugins paired with a free base theme (Astra). This strategy eliminates ongoing subscription fees, licensing costs, and vendor lock-in associated with third-party commercial plugins, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the platform. By developing tailored solutions for every major function, development costs remain manageable, and the site’s performance and security are optimized precisely for its unique needs.
Core Administrative and User Experience Modules
Giant Sponge or GS is the name of the business I had before retirement. So you will find a lot of GS naming here.
The administrative and user-facing infrastructure is managed by a small, powerful set of modules that handle the essential operations of the site. GSAdmin serves as the central nervous system within WordPress, taking on all responsibilities related to backend administration, providing a custom UI, and maintaining clean URL structures for optimal performance and navigation. Critically, it also manages all facets of membership enrollment and data storage, acting as the security gate for the platform.
Membership and Gallery Integration
The connectivity between the administrative core and the front-end user experience is handled by specialized components. The GSUserDashboard is the critical junction point that links a user’s specific content, such as their gallery submissions, back to their member data, providing them with the necessary tools for profile and data editing. Complementary to this is GSUserProfile, the front-facing system responsible for rendering the member’s public information and displaying their associated gallery content to the community.
A key component for data efficiency is GSDB, which is actively being developed to unify the database structure, creating a more cohesive and efficient link between the gallery, member data, and the administrative core.
For the presentation of image content, GSGallery provides a robust, responsive lightbox system, built upon the efficient OS Photoswipe library to ensure high-quality and fast media display across all devices.
GSInterview provides a specialized function for conducting internal or member assessments, utilizing a password-protected questionnaire system for secure data gathering.
Creative, Educational, and Interactive Challenge Systems
A significant portion of the platform is dedicated to tools that encourage creation, learning, and timed engagement, creating a vibrant, interactive community.
Digital Art and Content Generation
The SketchPad module provides an accessible digital art canvas, driven primarily by JavaScript and the fabric.js Library, allowing users to create and save their own digital drawings instantly. Expanding upon this core canvas, a new module, ColoringBook (coming soon), is in development to provide pre-rendered outlines and assets for users to colorize.
A separate, specialized component, DrawMe (coming soon), focuses the drawing setup specifically for use in animation, guided tutorials, and interactive games, offering a dedicated environment for motion-focused creation.
To inspire creativity, GSMoodBoard offers a utility for generating color palettes and visual mood boards. This can be accomplished either by analyzing an image uploaded by the user to extract its dominant color scheme or by generating an entirely random palette for immediate use.
Complementing these tools is SketchPrompts, a fun, memory-based generator designed to create unique, Mad Libs-style creative writing or drawing prompts.
Interactive Learning and Timed Events
The educational and competitive aspects of the platform are highly structured. SketchCal establishes a fixed, year-long learning schedule, providing a 356-day history of art sketch challenge that encourages daily participation and historical context.
The latest feature for the site is Sketch of the Week – this spotlights a single sketch with a custom review and links to the Member Gallery. This is an extension of the SketchCal Module.
For continuous engagement, SketchQuiz offers an ever-running, dynamic quiz that randomly pulls questions about artists and art history, ensuring users are always learning something new. A SketchQuiz is found in every article.
Finally, SketchChallenge is the sophisticated event management system that handles timed competitions. It provides a structured countdown format, manages participant uploads, and processes deep-link submissions from external sources for challenge entries.
Utility, Localization, and Site Enhancements
Several utility plugins manage the structure, global reach, and seasonal presentation of the website.
GSLanguages provides the framework for global accessibility, facilitating the creation and management of eight distinct native language homepages, complete with its own dedicated sitemap xml.
On a more aesthetic level, GSFestive is responsible for adding temporary, site-wide flair, such as seasonal snow effects during December, running informational tickers, pop-ups for announcements, and advanced CSS animation effects across the design.
For structural control, GSPageLayout acts as a foundational design tool, primarily focusing on managing the complex layout and content placement specific to the main site homepage.
On the internal side, the GSInternalBookmarksCard, has two main features:
1. Is a banner that links to a random internal article.
2. Is a “Research Hub:” which creates specialized bookmarking banners and icons with custom fields, enabling quick and efficient linking to major external image, video, and web search engines for internal team research.
To round out the content presentation, CatPosts offers a simple yet functional method for displaying categories and posts in an organized list format.
The Astra Child Theme Integration
Every plugin in the Giant Sponge Sketchbooks Plugin Suite is designed to work independently and in conjunction with the platform’s customized Astra Child Theme (Free Version). The theme provides the necessary foundational stability, visual consistency, and custom enhancements, ensuring that the features and data handled by the specialized plugins integrate seamlessly into the site’s overall design and functional aesthetic.
GnarlyTree.com, Sketchbooks.org & ArtistEarth.com and More | Coding with Purpose Across Projects
GnarlyTree.com is a personal project built with intention — to support others navigating the same challenges of POTS and EDS that I do, through accessible, engaging digital tools. It’s more than a website; it’s a living example of how coding can be used to create meaningful spaces for connection, education, and empowerment.
Several custom‑built GS plugins power the site’s functionality. A quiz system helps users explore their understanding of POTS, while curated interviews offer insight into lived experiences. The medical research hub organizes links and resources through internal bookmark cards, making complex information easier to explore. CatPosts provide a structured way to browse articles and updates, and the gallery system adds a visual layer to the community experience.
What’s notable is how development between GnarlyTree.com, Sketchbooks.org, and now ArtistEarth.com feeds into each other. Plugins originally built for Sketchbooks.org — like the quiz engine, remote gallery display, and layout tools — have been adapted to serve medical and community content on GnarlyTree. The same modular systems now support ArtistEarth.com as well, powering destination‑based galleries, creative travel features, and cross‑site sketch integration.
ArtistEarth.com expands the ecosystem into the world of creative travel — offering destination guides, cultural insights, sketching techniques, and inspiration for artists who explore the world with a notebook in hand. While Sketchbooks.org remains the community gallery and creative hub, ArtistEarth becomes the editorial companion, and GnarlyTree stands as the wellness‑centered project that sparked much of the underlying architecture.
Across all sites, the same philosophy holds true: build tools that help people feel connected, supported, and creatively empowered — no matter where they are or what they’re navigating.
This cross‑pollination of ideas is part of what makes coding therapy so powerful. It’s not just about solving one problem — it’s about building reusable systems that evolve across contexts. Sketchbooks.org may focus on artistic inspiration, ArtistEarth on creative travel, and GnarlyTree on chronic illness support, but the underlying architecture reflects a shared commitment to clarity, accessibility, and empowerment.
Collaboration and the Future of the Platform
The development of the Sketchbooks GS Plugin Suite is an ongoing effort rooted in passion for art and technology. This platform thrives on the principles of open functionality and streamlined, cost-effective development. We are actively seeking like-minded artists and developers who share this vision of building powerful, custom tools without reliance on proprietary third-party software. If you are a developer with experience in WordPress, JavaScript, and database integration, or an artist passionate about digital tool creation, we invite you to contribute your skills to enhancing the Sketchbooks.org ecosystem. Your contributions could help accelerate the development of new features, refine existing modules, and build out the next generation of creative educational tools or even non coding help with outreach. We look forward to connecting with those who wish to transform a hobby project into a robust, community-supported resource.
I am Jason Pogo, I created and am creating this website. This post is the insiders info on how. I have a sketchbook gallery here too at: JASONPOGO. This is truly an artist-run website.
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