Hmm ... I reckon your preparation is perfectly adequate. Quite often I just wash my face, lather up, strop my razor and get stuck in; in fact I actively prefer the whiskers to have a little resilience left. Don't think it's that.

Not having used a synthetic brush I'm not speaking from personal experience, but they're supposed to be surprisingly decent for soap or cream, so perhaps it's your chosen shaving medium which is causing the lather problem: what soap or cream are you using, and are you using a bowl or going straight to your face with the brush? If you're having trouble, stick with the former for now and aim to make your lather stiff then add water till it still has some body but doesn't stick up in stiff spikes. Getting lots of soap into the brush and then achieving the right ratio of product to water are the keys here, along with practice.

Now the razor. Ten to one it's the angle, and if you haven't cut yourself yet it'll probably be too flat to your face. You're looking for something like 30 degrees, give or take, and it's easy to under estimate. One and a half spine widths of space between the razor and your face will be somewhere near for a 5/8, a bit more for wider razors. Experiment - carefully - and this will come good with, you've guessed it, practice. Your Dovo will most likely be a full hollow, so you should be able to hear it cutting quite distinctly, which is one of the pleasures of shaving with an open razor.

Finally, nil desperandum. It's not the easiest skill to pick up, especially coming from a cartridge razor I should think (don't know, never used one), but apply yourself and you will get there, no doubt about it. The rewards are considerable.