• Standard pencils -- lots of them. Experiment to get the best leads. I like slightly soft leads that don't smudge when I try to erase yet aren't so hard that they dig into the paper. For some reason, I find that educational institutions put out the ones I like the best. I use these pencils to draw my original framework and pencil outlines. Some artists like to use "non-photo blue" pencils (try Prismacolor) to do that; I find that they won't erase well enough for me. I also like Mirado Black Warriors, if I can find them. Soft leads are darker and won't erase as well; hard leads will dig grooves in the paper.
• Plastic erasers -- Staedtler makes some very nice ones. Normal erasers eat the surface off the paper if you use them enough; plastic or soft art erasers won't do that. "Magic Rub" erasers are also pretty good for this but they don't pick up graphite pencil as well as the Staedtler. I have had next to no success with kneaded erasers (they pick up coloured pencil and hold it, then smudge it back on the paper when you use the eraser again).
• Koh-I-Noor technical pens -- these are damned expensive. I was lucky enough to have someone buy me a set. They are wonderful, though. Second best are Micron Pigmas or Zig Milleniums -- these are lightfast and archival pens which are pretty cheap, but Pigmas dry out very fast in my experience and neither one will stand up to much erasing. The Koh-I-Noors use India ink, which shrugs off my most vigorous erasures with ease. Get several different widths; 005, 01, and 08 at minimum for Microns/Zigs -- and use them.
• Pentalic Paper for Pens -- a nice, acid-free, smooth grain white paper which takes pen lines and keeps them straight and flat. (Grain is how rough the paper feels.) The smooth grain also has a nice effect with coloured pencils, making the colour much deeper and richer than it is when a rough paper grain makes more white show through. Those who use markers (I don't; they don't blend as well as pencils) will also find smooth-grain paper very helpful.

  This brand of paper recently got a little rougher for some reason! Try smooth bristol board or the smoothest paper your local store carries. Feel the grain and try to get one that feels almost like plastic.

• Crayola coloured pencils -- yes, the cheap kind. They cost $10 for a box of 50, come in a full range of colours, and I have yet to see any colour degradation (other than dust collection, which happens with all pencils) after 6 years of drawing. Prismacolours are nice but very expensive -- they have richer colour and are easier to blend but smudge a lot and won't erase. Caran D'ache pencils have very hard leads and are nice for detail, but Crayola is a good all-around pencil I keep coming back to.

Buy a book on human anatomy and study it until your eyes bleed. A basic knowledge of human proportions is essential if you want to be able to do drawings from scratch. Some hints: the length from shoulders to hips should be about the same as the length from hips to knees. The heels (or hocks) should touch about mid-rear-end when the character kneels. The elbows rest against the little "dip" of the waist when the arms are at the sides; the hands will rest against the tops of the thighs. 90% of the time you will draw the head too big, the arms too short, and the legs too long.

Spend a few hours drawing your own hands, and suddenly the hands of your characters will come to life. Remember that the fingers do not sprout directly out of the wrist -- there is a big flat plate between the wrist and the fingers. The thumb sprouts sideways out of that.

If your picture looks the same when viewed in a mirror (i.e., backwards), then it is in proportion. Go away in mid-drawing and come back and you will see a lot of mistakes you have overlooked. Try looking from a new perspective every so often.

Eyes are important. Keep them looking at something -- the viewer, an object, anything. A character gazing off into space is damned boring unless he has a reason to be. The deeper and more natural your character's eyes, the more lifelike he will look.

Starting Points
Get a subscription to Playboy Magazine. Yes, it's sick, disgusting and perverted, but it is an absolutely wonderful model sheet. The pictures are, in general, tasteful, and will give you very good suggestions for scene setup and clothing as well as an exceedingly good education in the female form. I have seen worse photos of nude women, and the articles are often good entertainment too -- would you believe it?

If Playboy is too risque', or you are underage, one of those horrible women's magazines -- Cosmopolitan and the like -- where 90% of the publication is ads for makeup, will also have lots of pictures of slightly less naked people wearing all sorts of clothes and in all sorts of poses.

Take an art class, if you can. You will not get to draw a lot of furries but the people teaching them usually know what they are doing. Besides basic anatomy, you need to know a lot about setup, framing, colour choice and balance, lines of motion, perspective, and other art techniques in order to make really good pictures. If you don't want to or can't take an art class, take photography, which will teach you similar things about arrangement, colour and action.

Get a site on FurNation! It's free and it will give you exposure. Get your art out there and get people looking at it. Trust me. It will get you a little constructive criticism, which might give you ideas as to where to go next in your art. It will also give you a little ego boost to have your very own art web site :)

Books and References
I'm not sure about the authors of these books, but some of them have proved quite helpful. As far as I know, you can get these books in any bookstore. Hunt for the art or photography section.

• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
• Drawing the [Male/Female] Nude (a series of three books by the same author)
• Animal Anatomy for Artists
• Illustrator's Reference Manual (they have several -- buy "Nudes" if you can)
• How to Draw Animals by Jack Hamm

If you like wolves, Wolf Park's Monty Sloan has a photo resource site and often sells original photos of wolves in natural settings as artist references (cheaply!).