best method to get from point a to point b

Trying to help out someone when I know a little but could use help from those that know more.  I have some normal "photos" - they are online in a friend's "photo space".  They want me to help them convert them to a sort of "cartoon" looking (I suppose vector looking) drawing - black white.  These are color pictures.  They are all taken in a room at someone's home.  The goal is to have no background too.  

So I have been playing with this tonight - I desaturated the photo and I applied the filter to "poster edges"  (I am using an older verson of photoshop (7).  Then I slowly selected and replaced background with white.

Another thing I tried, but was not too good was running it through Flash with it's "trace bitmap" feature.  When I showed it to the ones I am trying to help, they thought it looked too "spooky".     So, I'm just curious what filters or methods I might be missing that might help me out a bit.  I own Illustrator 10, but I'm not very proficient at using it.  I'm far more familiar with photoshop.  But I will be happy for anyone's advise.