In this piece, I used the image itself as a Pattern to Fill the text and as the Surface Texture. I'm not quite sure what happened, but have a hunch that it worked this well for a few  reasons (previous trys have been miserably disappointing): 

First, the font itself was a slightly better choice than some, to be convincing as engraved text. 

Second, the Dynamic Text feature of Painter 6 offers the choice of sunken, or engraved, text (though I'd prefer to learn how to create really nice engraved text manually). 

Third, Dynamic Text also offers the option to Fill the text with a Pattern. Filling it with the image (the same image as the surface) seems to make it more convincing as text that was carved out of that surface. 

Fourth, the image itself already has a texture and highlights that, when seen continuing down into the sunken or engraved text, help to make the text appear more to have been carved out of that surface. 

That's how I see it anyway.. and by now we know how they eye can play tricks on us! 

The following tutorial is written for Painter 6: 

I began with an image that had been painted over with a large Impasto brush and one of the Smeary variants, one that I'd planned to use as a background for another painting. 

These are the steps to complete the engraved text image above.

1. In the Select menu, choose All to select the entire image. 

2. In the Art Materials palette, Patterns section menu, choose Define Pattern. 

3. In the Objects palette, Dynamic Layers section, choose Dynamic Text, 18 pt AlgerianBasD (or any font you like that has enough bulk to hold up when the various effects are applied), then click the Appearance: tab and use the following settings: 

• Text: checked
• Opacity: 100%
• Fill using: Pattern
• Shadow Style: 3rd icon to the right (sunken or "engraved" style)

5. In the Effects menu, choose Surface Control, Apply Surface Texture:

• Softness: 0.0
• Inverted: unchecked
• Amount: 46%
• Picture: 100%
• Shine: 100%
• all other settings at default.