Chipping Sparrow: Three Strikes? (Dry Brush and Graphic Novel filters)

So, maybe this is a three strikes post. The first strike is the first image, a chipping sparrow in the grass. I really like the chipping sparrow, but some of the grass around it was a little hazy. So, I doctored things up for my second image by first running the image through the Dry Brush filter before running it through the Graphic Novel filter. Result? A very sad looking sparrow. Strike 2. Liking the Dry Brush background somewhat better than the original (ie, the haziness has been blurred over,) I clipped the sparrow out of the first image and pasted it over top of the sad looking sparrow in the second image. Did it work? Or is it strike three? Thanks for stopping by and looking at my pictures! :)