Basics, basics, basics. Art elements and principles, how they apply to an image, then anatomy and proportion.
At this very moment, I would not worry so much with ideas of composition, although you should keep them in mind to study later, maybe look up the basics of it while learning the elements and principles.
Made a halfway decent (although not quite as bookish as I'd prefer) post on basics and getting used to a media recently: >>466
In your case, you're using... what, oC? The bits about learning to make smooth strokes are still important, but for color in such a program you want to lay down a complete base color first so that the white isn't showing through... but color should not be what you worry about right now anyway.
Anthro faces? Learn to draw animal faces, combine them with the knowledge you should have of drawing human faces. There is no 'right' way to do it, so you should experiment with variations to see what you like. Someone, somewhere, will always dislike it, whether it is 'too human' or 'too animal' or 'too cartoony' or whatever.