Because of the artistic depth of Earle's backgrounds, it was decided for the characters to be stylized so they could appropriately match the backgrounds. While the layout artists and animators were impressed with Earle's paintings, they eventually grew depressed at working with a style that many of them regarded as too cold, too flat, and too modernist for a fairy tale. Nevertheless, Walt insisted on the visual design claiming that the inspirational art he commissioned in the past had homogenized the animators. Frank Thomas would complain to Ken Peterson, head of the animation department, of Earle's "very rigid design" because of the inhibiting effect on the animators that was less problematic than working with Mary Blair's designs, in which Peterson would respond that the design style was Walt's decision, and that, like it or not, they had to use it. Because of this, Thomas developed a red blotch on his face and had to visit the doctor each week to have it attended to. Production designer Ken Anderson also complained: "I had to fight myself to make myself draw that way." Another character animator on Aurora claimed their unit was so cautious about the drawings that the clean-up animators produced one drawing a day, which translated into one second of screen time per month.