Assistance in editing scanned images

Hello. I require assistance in editing scanned images, using either Photoshop or GIMP. This is a section of a scanned artwork that I wish to upload to the wiki in future:


My question is, may someone enlighten me about a way to fix up the areas where the image has a criss-cross pattern from the scan (particularly the nose and front of the overalls). I don't want to make drastic edits to the image so it no longer has the nature of the original artwork, but I simply wish to improve the quality of what the scan offers. Thanks for any replies.

I'm not sure if it works, but you can try selecting the colored area (that is, not the black lines), and then adding a little blur, so it gets a more natural fade.

Thanks, but GBAToad helped and it's now uploaded.

Kindly lock.