How I did the squirrel...I think.

Make all color corrections, resize, etc.
Dupe background layer
De-Saturate
Lighten a little with Brightness/Contrast...Brightness 20?/Contrast 0...
Dupe
Top layer...Blend Mode...Dodge (three layers at this point)
Top layer.. Gaussian Blur..1.00...just enough to see completed lines, not dark or heavy.
Change Middle layer.....Blend Mode/Darked
Go back to top layer....Merge all layers
Dupe
Change Top layer....Blend Mode/Multiply..lower Opacity to lighten or dupe again for darker.
Try other Blend Modes
Merge all and Dupe
I cloned out the fence
Smudge/Smeared/Pushed the background...Smudged Squirrel.

Try this tutorial on other images...
It's a good basic tut to start with...one of those that either works great or not at all :-)

Thank you to all for choosing my Squirrel image.
Joy