Is there any reason to be proud of reproducing a picture of a

>>3017917
well, i think it's hard to do, at least...
but i've felt sort of the same way. i've had my doubts about just copying stuff i want to learn.
it often feels like i'm just hoping to eventually absorb the right art knowledge from it. recently i've taken to a different approach though: i look at a long term goal, think about it and find how to break it down into a set of really specific skills. then i can practice those skills in a pretty straightforward way. for me it's helpful to do this just for the fact that i know exactly what i'm improving, whereas just copying stuff can be like feeling around in the dark.
so i don't know much about drawing landscapes/environments in particular, but i think it might be helpful to look at what you want to accomplish (like being able to design/draw environments from your imagination or whatever it is you want to do), really think about it and break that goal down into specific skills that you can practice really deliberately.
random example off the top of my head: maybe one of these small skills is intuitively seeing the horizon line and vanishing points. so an exercise you might do to practice that is to get a photo and place the horizon line and some vanishing points on it very quickly, without thinking much. just by guessing. then, you actually measure and plot out the horizon line and vanishing points properly, and see how far off you were. not sure if that's a good example but you probably get my general idea.

in my opinion, short anwser: yes, the skill absolutely transfers.

Is it something I should put in my portfolio? Is it okay to be like "I painted this photo that I took." Is that acceptable portfolio material?

>>3017917
>I'm not sure if I'm wasting my time

What are your short-term and long-term goals?

drawing from imagination is a tumblr meme for wannabe webcomic authors