This module looks like what I need, combining the image associated a child node-type (color) into a single parent image (palette).

What's the basics of the API syntax to make this possible?
Here is some TOTAL PSEUDOCODE, expressing what I'm imagining...

create_image( $namespace= 'palette-1' );
alter_image( 'palette-1', $op= 'append', $filename= 'child-img-1.png', $orientation= 'right', $padding= 0);
alter_image( 'palette-1', $op= 'append', $filename= 'child-img-2.png', $orientation= 'right', $padding= 0);
alter_image( 'palette-1', $op= 'append', $filename= 'child-img-3.png', $orientation= 'right', $padding= 0);
output_image( 'palette-1' );

Thanks for any help!
Would love to contribute some documentation.